"in 1978. (His best result was obtained in Milan at the 1978 European Athletics Indoor Championships). That was improved upon in 1980 by a flopper, Jacek Wszola of Poland. The last Olympic gold medal in the high jump events using that technique was won by East Germany's Rosemarie Ackermann in 1976. All of the subsequent record holders have used the Fosbury Flop, which Dick Fosbury used in his win in Mexico City in 1968. There is some debate over which of the two techniques is more efficient in clearing of the bar. Although both have advantages and disadvantages, the Fosbury"
"Osborn (1924), Walter Marty (1933), and Cornelius Johnson (1936). Johnson's record, (), was equaled on the same day by Dave Albritton, the first world record holder to use what we now call the straddle technique. At first, the straddle was viewed as just a variation of the Western roll, and indeed video of the 1936 Olympics shows Albritton using a conventional Western roll at lower heights. The straddle did not come to dominate the high jump until the mid-1950s, by which time it was recognized as a separate style. Walt Davis was the last Western roll jumper to hold the"
"Eastern cut-off The eastern cut-off is a variant of the ""scissors"" high jump style involving a layout. This enables the jumper to clear a higher bar than with the traditional scissors style, while still landing on the feet. The technique is generally credited to Michael Sweeney of the New York Athletic Club, who used it in 1895 to set a world record of 6 ft 5 5/8 inches (1.97 m). The style came to be called ""eastern"" because of its origin on the US east coast, after the invention of the rival ""western roll"" style by George Horine on the"
"Western roll was gradually replacing an earlier jumping style called the scissors-jump. In the Western roll, the bar was approached on a diagonal—the inner leg used for the take‑off, while the outer leg was thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Using the Western roll, George Horine first took the world high jump standard to in 1912. Horine is sometimes cited as the originator of the style. Osborn worked on his own form and obviously paid attention to the style that was developing as he competed in high school and at the University of Illinois. He modified"
"efficient than the straddle technique, a style that evolved from the Western roll when the rotation of the body was increased to the point where the bar was crossed face down. Western roll The Western roll is a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University. It is said that George Horine came to invent the Western roll because the high jump pit at Stanford could be approached from only one side. Another, perhaps more plausible, explanation is that the style was invented by the Stanford coach Edward Moulton. However, neither of these stories occurs in a detailed"
"world record, jumping in 1953. Only when Charles Dumas used the straddle technique to make the first jump, in 1956, did the Western roll begin to disappear. The Western roll was the catalyst for two changes in the rules of high jumping. The first was in high jump equipment. Until the 1930s, the high jump bar rested on two pegs that projected from the back of the uprights. Consequently, the jumper could hit the bar quite hard without dislodging it, by pressing it back against the uprights. This was scarcely possible for scissors jumpers, but easily possible with the Western"
"Western roll The Western roll is a high jump technique invented by George Horine of Stanford University. It is said that George Horine came to invent the Western roll because the high jump pit at Stanford could be approached from only one side. Another, perhaps more plausible, explanation is that the style was invented by the Stanford coach Edward Moulton. However, neither of these stories occurs in a detailed contemporary profile of Horine, which states that Horine arrived at the style himself after many months of experimentation. The style was controversial at first, partly because of rivalry between the US"
"with the Irish-American Michael Sweeney's ""Eastern cut-off"". By taking off like the scissors and extending his spine and flattening out over the bar, Sweeney raised the world record to in 1895. Another American, George Horine, developed an even more efficient technique, the ""Western roll"". In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Horine increased the world standard to in 1912. His technique was predominant through the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which the"
"west coast (Stanford). Horine was in fact the first to improve on Sweeney's record, when he cleared 6 ft 7 inches (2.01 m) in 1912. Although succeeded by the more efficient layout techniques of the western roll and (in the 1930s) by the straddle, the eastern cut-off continued to be competitive at an international level until the 1940s in the men's high jump, and until the 1960s in the women's high jump. It was used by John Winter of Australia to win the high jump in the Olympics of 1948, and by Iolanda Balas of Romania to win the women's"
"bar. This gives a very efficient clearance, but it made for an uncomfortable landing in the early days, when the jumper typically fell into a sandpit. The first successful exponent of the modified scissors was Clinton Larson of Brigham University, in Provo, Utah, who was US champion in 1917. Larson is credited with an exhibition jump of 6 ft 8 inches (2.03m), which exceeded the world record of the time, held by western roller Edward Beeson. More than 30 years later, the style was reinvented by Bob Barksdale of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Barksdale achieved an official clearance"
"the Western roll technique by developing an efficient side‑to‑the‑bar clearance, which resulted in more height and consistency. His jumping style was sometimes referred to as the Osborn roll, but is also often lumped together with other variations of the style of jumping that is generally referred to as the Western roll. By 1924 he was using the style to attain new heights. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Osborn corresponded from time to time with Volker Kluge of Altenburg, Germany, a journalist who published a sports magazine, and who had a passionate interest in the Olympics and the changes"
"the style is easily learned by starting with a hop and gradually strengthening the lead leg kick until the body is pulled into a layout above the bar. The Western roll was a competitive high jump style for a long time because it was easy to learn and more efficient (allowing clearance of a bar that is closer to the height of the center of mass) than all but the most contorted variants of the scissors. It also enabled a comfortable landing in the crude sand pits provided for high jumpers up until the 1950s. However, the technique is less"
"After crossing the bar the legs are rapidly ""scissored"": this undoes the twist and the jumper lands gracefully on the takeoff foot, facing the bar. Eastern cut-off The eastern cut-off is a variant of the ""scissors"" high jump style involving a layout. This enables the jumper to clear a higher bar than with the traditional scissors style, while still landing on the feet. The technique is generally credited to Michael Sweeney of the New York Athletic Club, who used it in 1895 to set a world record of 6 ft 5 5/8 inches (1.97 m). The style came to be"
"East and West Coasts (hence the label ""Western"" given to Horine's style). The initial objections, due to the ""no diving"" rule then in force, were overcome by the development of a Western roll style in which the lead foot precedes the head in crossing the bar. Another Western athlete, Alma Richards of Utah, won the 1912 Olympic high jump using a Western roll with a more frontal, feet-first, approach. While the ""no diving"" rule was still in force, the world high jump record was captured by a series of Western roll jumpers: George Horine (1912, ), Edward Beeson (1914), Harold"
"United States' 1936 Olympic team, but at the Olympic Trials he only cleared 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), again placing shared fourth and missing out. The top two - Johnson and Dave Albritton - both sailed over 6 ft in (2.07 m), breaking Marty's world record. The American team of Johnson, Albritton and Delos Thurber went on to sweep the Olympic medals. Marty used the high jump technique known as the Western roll, pioneered in the early 1910s by George Horine and Edward Beeson. At the time, there were two main jumping styles; Marty (and other west coast jumpers,"
"Sweeney jumped 6 ft 5 inches in 1895, a record that stood until 1912. 1912 was the last time that the men's world record was held by a variant of the scissors style, however the women's world was held in the 1960s by the eastern cut-off jumper Iolanda Balas of Romania. The eastern cut-off was undoubtedly the most natural and successful variation of the scissors technique. But a few jumpers achieved world-class performances with another variation, the so-called ""modified scissors"". In the modified scissors, the upper body leans back after takeoff, leading to a layout on the back above the"
"not unlike long-jumping with legs and hips lifted. Indeed, Davin was also holder of the world long jump record. The next world record in high jump was perhaps the first achieved with a true scissors style. In 1887 the high jump record was captured by a US athlete, William Byrd-Page of the University of Pennsylvania, first with a clearance of 6 ft 3 inches, and later 6 ft 4 inches (1.93 m). Thereafter, all world high jump records until 1957 were set by US athletes. Byrd-Page's record was first bettered by Michael Sweeney, inventor of the eastern cut-off mentioned above."
"jumper radically sped up his approach run, took the record up to , and won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, before a motorcycle accident ended his career. American coaches, including two-time NCAA champion Frank Costello of the University of Maryland, flocked to Russia to learn from Brumel and his coaches. However, it would be a solitary innovator at Oregon State University, Dick Fosbury, who would bring the high jump into the next century. Taking advantage of the raised, softer landing areas by then in use, Fosbury added a new twist to the outmoded Eastern Cut-off. He directed himself over"
"Dick Fosbury Richard Douglas Fosbury (born March 6, 1947) is an American retired high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential and inspirational athletes in the history of track and field. Besides winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the high jump event, with a unique ""back-first"" technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop, adopted by almost all high jumpers today. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backwards over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight (it was actually below his body"
"desirable to reduce foot impact. Until the invention of the eastern cut-off by Michael Sweeney in the 1890s, high jumpers used fairly primitive variants of the basic scissors style. One of the most eminent of these early jumpers was Marshall Brooks of Oxford University, who achieved the first jump of 6 ft (1.83 m) on 17 March 1876. A few weeks later he improved this mark to 6 ft 2 inches (1.89 m). This record stood until 1880 when Patrick Davin of Ireland jumped 6 ft 2 inches (1.90 m). These jumpers ran straight at the bar in a style"
"Canadian Debbie Brill started doing the ""Brill Bend"" about the same time, but Fosbury got the most exposure, winning the Olympics. The prevailing methods involved jumping forwards or sideways, styles called the Roll or ""Western Roll"" and previous to that, the ""Scissors"" style. After Fosbury's victory, the flop became almost the only style used by elite competitors. This was the first Olympics to do drug testing, though primarily these initial searches were for narcotics and stimulants. 1968 in athletics While the most notable story coming out of 1968 was Socio-Political, politics involved with the Olympics was not something unique to"
"He also competed for USA in exhibition baseball tournament in Stockholm. George Horine George Leslie Horine (February 3, 1890 – November 28, 1948) was an American athlete who mainly competed in the high jump. He is credited with developing a technique called a forerunner to the western roll, a technique he developed due to the layout of his backyard where he practiced which was considered ""backward"" at the time. While on the track team at Stanford University, his technique was corrected to the more conventional jumping style of the time. He equalled the NCAA record in the event at 6'"
"was a complex motion where an athlete went over the high jump bar facing down, and lifted his legs individually over the bar. Fosbury found it difficult to coordinate all the motions involved in the straddle method, and began to experiment with other ways of doing the high jump. Fosbury later recalled, ""I knew I had to change my body position and that's what started first the revolution, and over the next two years, the evolution."" At first, he tried to use a technique known as the upright scissors method. In this method, a jumper runs upright towards the bar,"
"event was won by Cornelius Johnson at . American and Soviet jumpers were the most successful for the next four decades, and they pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their (belly-down) torso around the bar, obtaining the most efficient and highest clearance (of the bar) up to that time. Straddle-jumper, Charles Dumas, was the first to clear 7 feet (2.13 m), in 1956, and American John Thomas pushed the world mark to in 1960. Valeriy Brumel took over the event for the next four years. The elegant Soviet"
"of 6 ft 9 inches (2.05m) in early 1956, when the world record stood at 6 ft 11 inches (2.12m). His technique differed from Larson's in a small but significant way: his head slightly preceded his hips in crossing the bar. In Larson's time there was a ""no diving"" rule which disallowed such a jump. When the rule was repealed, in the late 1930s, the main result was the development of ""dive"" variants of the western roll and straddle techniques. But it also opened the possibility of a ""back dive"" scissors, and Barksdale's technique was a first step in that"
"high jump in the Olympics of 1960 and 1964. Even today, the eastern cut-off is used by high school jumpers in Kenya, where the lack of foam landing mats necessitates a style where jumpers land on their feet. The eastern cut-off is a very beautiful and complex style involving contrary rotations of the body and legs. A jumper taking off from the left foot crosses the bar with the right leg first, left leg roughly parallel to the bar, with the body still on the takeoff side and twisted (opposite to the rotation of the left leg) to face downwards."
"roll. This loophole was exploited by Harold Osborn, among others. As a result, high jump equipment was changed to ensure that the bar could be dislodged both backwards and forwards. The other change was in the ""no diving"" rule, which was repealed shortly after the world record jumps of Johnson and Albritton, thus allowing the head to cross the bar before the feet. This led to a ""dive"" version of the western roll, which was used by the next world record holder, Melvin Walker in 1937, and also by Walt Davis. The crucial difference between the Western roll and the"
"flop is considered by many easier to learn, especially for younger jumpers, and thus has become the dominant technique. In 1993, an American high jumper Steve Harkins brought back the straddle style in the Master's division to break the Master's World Record and then went on to win the World's, beating a 'flopper' at the World Championships in Miyazaki Japan. Harkins used the 'head down first' style as did Brumel. At 6 '7"" at the U.S. National Championships in Bozeman, Montana; in March 1993, Harkins was the highest jumper ever in the Master's to have used the straddle style. Straddle"
"watch high jumpers and pole vaulters landing in sawdust and thought there must be a better way. Noticing some scrap foam, he decided to create a container for the foam and structure it into a landing pit. It was this innovation that led to the development of the Fosbury Flop style of High Jump by Dick Fosbury and allowed for dramatic improvements in height for both Pole Vaulting and High Jumping. Gordon was able to place the first foam pits in the 1968 Summer Olympics, and they have been in every Olympic Games since. In 1969, Gordon wanted to create"
"the nearest centimetre. When measurements were taken in feet and inches the bar could be raised, for record-attempt purposes, in increments of one-quarter inch. Using the metric system a new record must be (at least) one centimeter higher. In 1973, American Dwight Stones was the first Fosbury Flop jumper to set a world record. The namesake of the technique, Dick Fosbury impressed the world by winning the 1968 Olympics with the flop, but never held the world record. The last Straddle style jumper to hold the World Record was Vladimir Yashchenko (Soviet Union/Ukraine) in 1978—all record-setters since then have used"
"straight, and head and trunk pass the bar at the same time. Charles Dumas, the first high jumper to clear 7 ft, and John Thomas (silver medal at the 1964 Olympics) used this technique. Valeriy Brumel (gold in 1964) dove a little bit, his head going over the bar before his trunk. Probably the most extreme exponent of the dive straddle was Bob Avant, who cleared 7 ft. in 1961. Avant's technique was close to a pure dive, with just a small knee lift on his lead leg. The last world record jump with the straddle technique was Vladimir Yashchenko's"
"m (6 ft 4 in), sharing fourth place with six other jumpers. Spitz jumped in an era in which most jumpers from the American west coast (such as Marty) used the western roll, whereas east coast jumpers tended to prefer the eastern cut-off or other developments of the old scissors style. Spitz, a New Yorker, belonged to the latter group, although his technique was largely self-taught and incorporated elements of the roll. George Spitz George Burton Spitz, Jr. (June 19, 1912 – April 1986) was an American high jumper. He jumped indoor world records in 1931 and 1932 and was"
"2.28 m. However, none of his attempts at 2.29 m came close to clearing. Four years later, in Munich, 28 of the 40 competitors used Fosbury's technique, although gold medalist Jüri Tarmak used the straddle technique. By 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists used it. Of the 36 Olympic medalists in the event from 1972 through 2000, 34 used ""the Flop"". Today it is the most popular technique in modern high jumping. In 2013, Fosbury's high jump appeared in a Mazda commercial portraying ""Game Changers"" and, with Fosbury himself, in an ad for Wuaki TV. In 2015, Avicii released"