Our physics expert explains the mechanics of one of track and field's most amazing feats
By Adam Weiner Posted 05.13.2008 at 11:57 am 0 Comments


In 1968, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the track and field event of high jumping when he won the 1968 gold medal in the Mexico City Olympics using a unique new method of jumping. The video shows Javier Sotomayor setting the world indoor record of almost eight feet (Budapest, 1989) using Fosbury’s technique, known in track and field circles as the “Fosbury flop.” The flop has completely supplanted all other high jumping techniques in the years since its introduction. But why is this technique so superior to earlier methods of jumping? It’s all in the physics.

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