In the Stands With Dick Fosbury

BEIJING - Forty years have passed since the American high jumper Dick Fosbury won the Olympic gold medal in Mexico City with a revolutionary backbend that now bears his name.

He hasn't high jumped since the 1998 Masters World Championships, where Fosbury insists he performed his final flop.

"It hurts," he said. "There's simply no pleasure. I did it because I was asked to. I was fit and still training, but at 50, there was no joy. It was not fulfilling. If I don't want to do something, I'm not going to."

Even if his desire miraculously returned, it is unlikely the 61-year-old Fosbury could arch his back enough to clear the bar. In March, he was diagnosed with stage one lymphoma and on April 11, he had surgery in Albuquerque to remove a cancerous tumor in his spine.

"They didn't get it all," he said, "for fear of doing nerve damage or paralysis. The tumor was compressed in the spinal cord. It had eaten four [lumbar] vertebra. I finished chemo and radiation three weeks ago. I'm extremely weak. It's going to take a year to feel some semblance of normality."

Nonetheless, he flew to Beijing in time for the Opening Ceremony, and on Tuesday night, he returned to the Bird's Nest for the men's high jump final and a chat with teamusa.org.

The tall, slim, blue-eyed Fosbury arrived in a dark suit two hours into the competition, and by the time he was seated, Russia's Andrey Silnov had already secured the gold medal by clearing 2.36 meters. Silnov hadn't missed a jump all night and was attempting to surpass Charles Austin's 1996 Olympic record of 2.39 meters - a record enabled by Fosbury, who had revolutionized the high jump technique with his curved run-up and iconic back dive over the bar that eventually replaced the scissor-legged and hurdle techniques.

Fosbury won the 1968 gold medal with an Olympic record of 2.24 meters, and even though men have increased the Olympic mark by 1.5 meters with his technique, Fosbury thinks the flop may have actually been more of a boon to female jumpers.

"Women picked up the flop technique much faster. They're more flexible. But truthfully, it was because there were fewer women's track coaches then. Right after 1968, a lot of coaches were still skeptical. They would tell their athletes not to do it because it was a fluke. But there were no coaches to tell girls not to.

"When you have a technique that's a well-proven, elite athletes wouldn't give it up. So it was kids, the fringe high schoolers, that were willing to try this new technique. It was the ones who were just OK, not top-50. They had less to risk and more to gain. They just did it because they wanted to."

The key to the flop, Fosbury said, is the takeoff. "With an arc-ed takeoff, you've got to have a consistent approach and the correct position every time. Once the correct position on the approach is second nature, then you can focus on not messing up the takeoff. Once you don't mess up the takeoff, then it's highly likely you'll clear the bar but you still have to pay attention to what you're doing.

Fosbury came upon he curved approach, he said, "by accident," but contrary to what has been written, it was not because  Fosbury's garden wouldn't accommodate a straight approach.

"When you're in grade school and your P.E. teacher is your coach, they're not watching that closely," he explained.

Although basketball was his real love, Fosbury said "High jump gave me satisfaction because it was what I was best at. I was built OK for it but I'm short. I'm 6-foot 4. They guys now are 6-6," which he suspects is a byproduct of the flop.

Other than attracting taller competitors, the high jump has changed very little since Fosbury revolutionized the technique. There are only three main differences today. One, the athletes take much longer approaches. Two, they use an arm drive at takeoff. Three, they throw their head back and don't watch the bar as they clear it, so the timing is all instinctive.

Jumping somewhat blindly like that has its tradeoffs.  A TV monitor showed Silnov in slow-motion missing one of his record attempts, Fosbury said, "He couldn't see when to un-arch and kick his calves out. That's why he clipped it with his calves." (Silnov would fail on all three attempts to set a new Olympic mark, leaving Austin's record intact.)

"I'm not surprised no one's come up with a novel approach," Fosbury said.  "From a physics standpoint, the flop is the ultimate in efficiency. If our knees could bend forward, there would be a different technique. What is more likely, is to change the rules of the game."

One rule change, Fosbury mused, was "allow them to jump off two feet. Gymnasts can jump higher with a back round-off than off one foot. Watch the floor exercise. They go high, but it's not their objective. You build all that momentum [in a two-footed tumbling pass] and convert that to vertical height, but...that's just what if, what if, what if."

Fosbury has seen every Olympic high jump since his 1968 victory - if not in person, than on TV, and is still excited when Americans win. He was highly disappointed not to see any make the final in Beijing.

"I mean, come on. They only had to clear 2.29 to make the finals. I don't know why they didn't make it. Those guys were jumping much, much higher during the year. I'd love to talk to them and find out," he said.

In Beijing, Fosbury has also been "amazed" by the swimmer Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals. "He's a good kid. I talked to his mom. I told her that my mother was in the stands when I was competing at the Olympics and there was nobody that meant more to me in the stadium than her."

He has also enjoyed seeing track and field world records fall at the Games.

"There aren't many that happen at the Olympics. [Pole vaulter] Yelena Isinbayeva was a good bet. The record in the men's 100 was pretty incredible. I think the 200 is pretty odds on for Bolt. The other possibility is in the high jump. Blanka Vlasic from Croatia has been winning all her meets and making world record attempts. I've got my fingers crossed [for the women's high jump final on Saturday]. I hope it's an excellent night."

Postscript: Fosbury never became a television analyst, preferring instead to work as a civil engineer in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he met his wife, Robin Tomasi, who was his swing dancing instructor. Fosbury also picked up snowboarding in the ski town, as did his 26-year-old son who now works as a chef in Portland, Oregon. Fosbury continues to conduct an annual track and field camp for kids in Bowdoin, Maine, every summer, and is trying to raise funds to re-establish a track team at Oregon State, his alma mater.