'It was amazing': Athletics coach Jean-Claude Perrin recalls Fosbury's jump at the 1968 Olympics

Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin, with AFP 8:32 p.m., March 14, 2023, modified at 8:36 p.m., March 14, 2023

It was by turning his back on conventions that the American Dick Fosbury, who died Monday at the age of 76, entered the history of athletics, with his "flop", a revolutionary high jump technique which brought him the Olympic gold in 1968, before becoming a school in the discipline.

Former athletics coach Jean-Claude Perrin praised "a great mentally strong jumper" on the 

program (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.).

For the first 72 years at the Olympic Games, athletes jumped forwards in the high jump

Then, at Mexico 1968, Dick Fosbury came along with his "Fosbury flop" and changed the sport forever pic.twitter.com/AZOwrV6scA

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 13, 2023

"The kid is going to break his neck".

This is what coaches said, five years before his consecration in Mexico City, perplexed if not refractory, when they saw this 16-year-old high school student strive to cross the bars, not according to the technique of the belly roll or the scissor, but at his his own way, dorsally.

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Perseverance

Until then, this son of English immigrants, born in Portland on March 6, 1947, was a student from Medford, Oregon, clearly more gifted for science than for the sport he had been practicing for six years, after having abandoned baseball. and basketball.

To the point of describing himself, in his autobiography "Wizard of Foz" ("the Wizard of Foz") as "one of the worst high jumpers in the state". 

It is then in the greatest indifference that the jumper perseveres.

In 1968, at the Mexico Olympics, Dick Fosbury competed without much conviction.

But it is the consecration: thanks to his first try at 2m24, synonymous with world record and Olympic title, the jumper is acclaimed by the crowd.

"He put on his show in the unknown. Nobody was paying attention to him but when he succeeded on his first try, people stood up and waved the flags. It was amazing", remembered Jean-Claude Perrin . 

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"Circus Show"

Dick Fosbury "was a fabulous attraction, people were amazed. He mixed athletics with a circus show", the athletics coach told 

with emotion .

"He created something universal that moved at the speed of light in schools," continued Jean-Claude Perrin.

Before his death, the American jumper also commented on his prowess: "I adapted an outdated style and modernized it to make it effective. I didn't know anyone else in the world could use it and I would never have imagined that it would revolutionize the discipline", confided the one who failed to qualify for the Munich Games, after having had to put his sports career on hold for his studies in civil engineering.

The Mexico Olympics in 1968 will forever remain in the history of the Olympiads.

"These are Games of glory", ended up summarizing Jean-Claude Perrin in tribute to the one who modernized and revolutionized his discipline.