Up until the 1968 Olympic Games, Dick Fosbury was mocked. His unusual high-jump style, attempting to leap over the bar with his back arched, caused him to be dubbed cruel names by the US media. “The laziest high-jumper in the world”; “a fish flopping into a boat”; “a two-legged camel,” referring to his jaunty run-up. The Los Angeles Times thought he looked like “a guy being pushed out of a 30-storey window”.
But Fosbury’s ability to harness their words and channel them into something positive was one of his many strengths. “As an athlete you’re a performer,” he said. “All of us doing sports, we love attention. So if you’re getting some attention – even if you’re being laughed at – that’s a good thing. I took it as they were not ridiculing me but enjoying something radically different.”
