The Fosbury Flop is a technique in the low
high jump that contrasts with the Eastern Roll and was first used by
Dick Fosbury, whose gold medal in the
1968 Summer Olympics made it the dominant technique of the event as it remains today. Before Fosbury, most elite jumpers used to dive over head first, or had their own specialized techniques, such as the
straddle. The method used is to sprint diagonally towards the bar, jump off the outside foot, then curve and leap head-first, back-downwards over the bar in a rolling motion keeping as much of the body as possible below the bar. When high jumpers perform this jump, they bend their body in such a way that it is possible for the athlete to clear the bar while his or her
center of mass does not. In fact, the body's center of mass can be kept as much as 20
cm under the pole.
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FOSBURY FLOP. SALTO FOSBURY