Track and field legend Dick Fosbury died Sunday at age 76. His publicist, Ray Schulte, announced the news in an Instagram post on Monday. The Olympic gold medalist suffered from lymphatic cancer, which ended his life after a recurrence.
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Born in Portland, Oregon, he revolutionized the world of sports with a new and more efficient way to high jump. To this day, the technique he developed in the 1960s is still referred to as the ‘Fosbury Flop.’
His career peaked in 1968, during the Olympic Games in Mexico City, when he won gold in the high jump thanks to his technique. He broke the record with a mark of 7 feet 4 1/4 inches (2.24 meters). By the next Olympics, 28 of the 40 participants in the high jump competition were using Fosbury's technique, making the American athlete go down in history as one of the great legends.
