American legend Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized the high jump sport and won Olympic gold in 1968, has died at the age of 76, his agent announced Monday.
Ray Schulte said in a statement that Fosbury died in the early hours of Sunday following a battle with lymphoma, adding, “It is with a very heavy heart that I must share the news that my longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning.”…”.
“Friends and fans all over the world will miss Dick very much. He is a true legend and a friend to all.”!”.
Born March 6, 1974 in Portland, Oregon, Fosbury is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field..
In addition to winning a gold medal in the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the sport of high jump with the “fosbury flop” technique, which is adopted by almost all practitioners of this sport today..
His technique was characterized by running diagonally towards the bar, then crouching and jumping back over it, which gave him a much lower center of mass on the way up than traditional techniques..
