Come on, admit it. The little voice in your head thinks the Fosbury Flop is jes’ like stealin’. So, what is the pre-Fosbury high-jump record? (I guess there could be a post-Fosbury one higher, maybe from a combine.)
They were pretty high. He did his thing in the 1968 Olympics, reaching 2.24 m, which was NOT a world record. At the time, the world record was 2.28 m from 1963 by Valeriy Brumel. (World record in high jump over the years) That WR wasn’t exceed until 1973.
If you charted the world record vs. year, I don’t think there would be a discontinuity at the point of “The Flop”. Rather surprising actually, given it’s legendary status.
It may be legendary, but it did revolutionize high jumping. The thing about Fosbury was that he was the only one doing it, and he won the gold medal. I remember watching him that year; not only did he jump in this weird manner, but he spent about a minute or so before concentrating, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Brumel and the other jumpers weren’t exactly doing what you might call a jump – they lifted off on one foot and rolled over the bar.
YMMV but I’d call clearing 2.28m a jump.
And, of course, using a two footed take-off is illegal.
Brumel, who just died, did what I believe was called a western roll.