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15, Mar
2023
Dick Fosbury: The Revolutionary Who Turned the High Jump Upside Down

A remembrance by Ed Hula

Dick Fosbury was an unassuming revolutionary at a time when the U.S. and the world heaved with protest. In 1968, the Vietnam War, civil rights, assassinations and other events fueled foment and cries for change.

Fosbury, a 22-year-old engineering student in Oregon, may have sympathized with the causes of student protests but that was not the revolution he would lead. Instead of polemics, athletics was the means to the end for Fosbury. In this case, a gold medal in the high jump at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

Fosbury will forever be remembered as the first gold medalist to use a new technique dubbed the “Fosbury flop”. Gliding over the bar headfirst, the technique quickly replaced the scissor-style jump with the feet going first. He did not claim to be the inventor of the new jumping style, but the Fosbury flop is how it remains known. With the encouragement of his high school coach, Fosbury began experimenting in the 1960s with a dramatically different approach to the high jump. The head first technique took a few more years to develop, but by the time of the 1968 Olympics, he was on his way to number-one in the world rankings.

The “flop” has become the only style followed by jumpers since the 1972 Olympics, the last to with a gold medalist using the now archaic scissor-style jump.

“To be honest, I wasn’t thinking of being a revolutionary,” he said in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of his Mexico City triumph.

“My intuition, my natural instinct helped me to find a better way, a new way of jumping.  I happened to be the only one using it at that point.  Who knew that after the gold medal in Mexico City kids around the world would adopt this technique because it looked fun,” he said.

Fosbury died March 12 in Salt Lake City where he was being treatment for lymphoma, which was first diagnosed in 2008 . He had just celebrated his 76th birthday. He lived in Bellevue Triangle in southern Idaho.

Fosbury’s survivors include his wife Robin Tomasi; sister Gail Fosbury; son Erich; stepdaughters Stephanie Thomas-Phipps and Kristin Thompson as well as grandchildren.

After he won the gold medal in 1968, Fosbury says he had to give up the high jump as a condition for readmission to Oregon State University. He blamed the time spent perfecting his jumping technique instead of school work for the academic disconnect. Upon graduation, the Oregon native would settle in southern Idaho.

Fosbury launched a civil engineering firm in Ketchum, Idaho, while staying active in Olympic circles. He was happy to coach athletes in workshops around the world. Fosbury was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1992.

He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Idaho state legislature before becoming a member of the Blaine County Commission in 2019. He was elected to a second term in 2022. A Democrat, Fosbury’s seat will be filled with a Democrat to be named by the Idaho governor.

The Blaine County Facebook page mourning Dick Fosbury.

“Dick was truly a remarkable individual and I consider it an honor to have been able to have worked so closely with him for the past almost six years and witnessed first-hand his dedication and commitment to serving others,” says Blaine County Administrator Mandy Pomeroy.

“He was such an inspiration to everyone around him and my life is better off for having known him,” she says.

A black drape covered his chair and vase of flowers placed on the desk at the March 14 commission meeting. Fosbury was one of three county commissioners for Blaine County, population about 25,000.

Pomeroy described the session – packed with an array of county business – as “difficult”.  She says her office is now inundated with media requests as word of Fosbury’s death spreads.

She says a memorial will be planned, perhaps in a couple of months.

Fosbury was involved for years with the U.S. Olympians and Paralympians Association as well as the World Olympians Association. From 2007 to 2011 he was president of the WOA.

In this 2011 photo, then WOA President Dick Fosbury checks out the London 2012 gold medal.

“Dick will be sorely missed. He was a good friend to us all and a real advocate for the core values of the Olympic Movement. I was honored to work with him both at the WOA and at Peace and Sport,” says Fosbury’s successor Joel Bouzou, the current president of WOA.

Fosbury acknowledged the influence the 1968 Olympics cast upon him as he entered adulthood in the turbulent year that was 1968.

“Mexico City was a new experience for me. It changed my whole perspective when I started to observe athletes from all the different countries,” he told this reporter in 2018.

“Different languages, different races. Different food. It really was a transforming experience for me. We all have the same desires and commonalities regardless of what the politics are,” said Fosbury.

He raised his fist at the medal ceremony in solidarity with sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, whose podium protest earlier in the Games triggered wild controversy in the IOC, USOC and beyond.

When he returned to the U.S. he travelled widely to talk about his experiences at the Olympics. The protests by Smith and Carlos were of interest wherever he went.

“Every cab driver would ask me about the Black Power salute and I would explain this was not about Black Power. This was about the Olympic movement for human rights. It’s not black or brown or red or yellow or white. It’s for human rights,” Fosbury said.

Fosbury tells his story in detail in a 2018 book, “The Wizard of Foz – Dick Fosbury’s One-Man High-Jump Revolution” written with Bob Welch, from Skyhorse Publishing.

Ed and Sheila Hula with Dick Fosbury and WOA officer Tracey Mattes in London in 2011.

An optimist about the power of sport to help make the world better, Fosbury also understood the realities of life.

“The Olympics and sport represent our culture and society. And so we constantly see the improvements and great performances by the athletes and that’s very exciting. At the same time we face challenges with doping, corruption, usually influenced by money.

“So even in sport we face the same challenges we face in politics, business. It’s complex, it’s confusing. But I am a true advocate of the power of sport to be a positive influence on people,” said Fosbury in October 2018.

It was the last time we had the chance to speak.

Written by Ed Hula

8, Mar
2023
The Hula Report: Women’s Day Tributes

They are family. Some are like family. Others I pay tribute for the way they shaped my path along the never-ending road to the Olympics. On this International Women’s Day I salute the women who made this a magical journey.

The story can only be told because of the support of my wife of 38 years, Sheila. Her understanding and patience in the early days of my work covering the Olympics as a radio journalist helped lay the foundation for the decades of experiences we both would share on the Olympic beat.

Sheila Hula in 2009.

Sheila was the publisher of Around the Rings, the newsletter we founded and then sold in 2021 to Infobae of Argentina.  Sheila was her own tour de force in the Olympic world.  She and I are both involved in development of our new consulting and content creation firm, Hula Sport Communications.

From the early days of my foray into the rings, I will always remember the encouragement of then IOC media chief Michele Verdier.  As a novice among the ranks of an Olympic press corps deep with years of experience and contacts, Verdier helped me find a place in the media rogues gallery.

Our incredible sojourn as a family to Sydney, Australia, from 1998 to 2001 was made possible with the backing of Julie Flynn, news director for Radio 2UE, rightsholder for the 2000 Olympics and Paralympics.

Jackie Brock Doyle

Australia led to a whole new realm of acquaintances whose careers grew mightily after Sydney.  Jackie Brock-Doyle was a key member of the Sydney 2000 media team. After helping London win the 2012 Games, she remained as media chief and now is a top adviser to World Athletics president Seb Coe.

Glenda Korporaal covered the business and political angles of the Sydney Games. Now she’s a senior editor for The Australian.

Nicole Jeffery, an important sports journalist in Australia for decades is now on the comms team with Brock-Doyle at WA.

Jacquelin Magnay is another Australian stalwart on the Olympics beat. After Sydney she moved to London from where she now reports.

Tracey Holmes was famously fired as a member of the comms team for Sydney 2000. But that did nothing to block her career, from a stint with CCTV in Beijing to her current work with ABC Radio (Australia).

Karen Webb also was subject to losing her job on a political whim. She departed Sydney 2000 just months before the Games.  The IOC snapped her up, making her a part of its Sydney team. Since then, Webb has held posts in Doha, including work on the 2022 FIFA World Cup. She is now chair of British Swimming.

In the field of public relations, we have always welcomed the chance to work with Sevi Hubert Townsend of Jon Tibbs and Associates. Her professionalism and knowledge stand out.

The Games following Sydney were in Salt Lake City for 2002. Deseret News reporter Lisa Riley Roche was at the forefront of covering those Olympics. And now, as Salt Lake City campaigns for an encore, Roche brings to bear her experience across three decades.

Wakako Yuki, a venerable reporter for Yomiuri Shimbun, has been on the Olympic beat for 30+ years. She is the doyenne of the Japanese press corps at the Games.

From the IOC, Anita DeFrantz has been a constant in my travels on the Olympic highway.  The senior member of the IOC in the U.S., DeFrantz has been a part of my Olympic coverage since we first met in 1990.  Her work unsuccessfully challenging the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics is a chapter of its own in the annals of the Games. She is now third in IOC seniority.

Gunilla Lindberg was elected to the IOC in 1996 and is 13th in seniority.  Her unending labors as secretary general of the Association of National Olympic Committees has made her one of the most knowledgeable IOC members about the operations of NOCs.

I miss the presence of Irena Szewinska, the great sprinter from Poland, home turf for the Hula clan. I met her long after her days as a runner, when she became an IOC member. She was always kind and happy, unpretentious for her Olympic feats.

Happily unpretentious was Gianna Angelopoulos, first woman to head an Olympic organizing committee. Always accessible to the press, she sought the attention that helped get Athens to finish line.

Laura Walden was on the scene in Europe for almost 20 years. The Texan was part of the pr team for the European Olympic Committees before launching her on line publication Sport Features and working on Olympic bids from Pyeongchang.

Atlanta-based reporter Karen Rosen is among the “almost family” I can thank for the contributions she has made to Olympic journalism through the years. As a colleague her know-how is voluminous. So is her collection of memorabilia. We will hear more from her in years to come.

Kathy Kuczka and Janice McDonald have been members of our Olympics family for numerous editions. They helped make it all possible. My first intern Melissa Gray is now a senior editor for CNN.  My sister Liz will always be remembered for dishing out the bagels at our first Newsmaker Breakfasts held during the ‘96 Games.

Last, thanks to Mom, who was number-one for influencing my life for many years. We lost her in 1994, just weeks after thrilling her when she heard me report from Lillehammer. It was the first time she heard my voice on the radio from overseas. I often think about that today when I have a microphone in front of me. Thanks for the cheers, Elsie Hula.