Going Higher: The Evolution of the High Jump

Imagine standing at the end of a long runway, staring at a thin horizontal bar set higher than your own head. Your goal is to run, launch yourself into the air, and clear that bar without knocking it down. This is the high jump, one of the most exciting events in track and field. While it might look like athletes today all jump the same way, the technique for reaching these heights has changed drastically over the last hundred years.

In the early days of organized sports, most athletes used a simple method called the Scissors jump. To do this, a jumper would run toward the bar and throw one leg over, followed quickly by the other. They would stay mostly upright, landing on their feet in a pit of sand or sawdust. While the Scissors jump was easy to learn, it was not very efficient. Because the jumper’s body stayed vertical, or upright, they had to lift their entire weight very high to clear the bar. This limited how high anyone could actually go.

By the 1910s, athletes began experimenting with a new style called the Western Roll. Instead of staying upright like a pair of scissors, jumpers started to lean their bodies out. In the Western Roll, the athlete would clear the bar on their side, with their lead leg tucked under them. This was a major breakthrough because it kept the athlete’s body closer to the bar, allowing them to use their energy more effectively. For several decades, this was the standard way to compete.

As the years passed, the Western Roll evolved into the Straddle technique. This became the most popular style from the 1930s through the 1960s. In the Straddle, the jumper crossed the bar face-down, looking as if they were hugging the bar as they rotated over it. This allowed the athlete’s center of mass to stay lower, meaning they didn't have to jump quite as hard to get their whole body over the obstacle. For a long time, people believed the Straddle was the absolute best way for a human to jump.

Everything changed in 1968 because of a college student named Dick Fosbury. Fosbury struggled with the Straddle technique and decided to try something that looked completely ridiculous to everyone else. Instead of going over face-down or on his side, he turned his back to the bar and arched his body into a curve. He looked like he was falling backward through the air. People laughed and called it the "Fosbury Flop," thinking it was a mistake. However, the laughter stopped when Fosbury won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico City, setting a new record.

Science helps explain why the Fosbury Flop is so successful. When a jumper arches their back over the bar, their "center of mass"—the imaginary point where all their weight is balanced—actually passes underneath the bar while their body passes over it. This bit of physics allows athletes to clear much higher bars than they ever could with the older methods.

Another reason the Flop became possible was the invention of better equipment. In the old days, jumping backward would have been very dangerous because athletes landed in hard sand. By the 1960s, stadiums began using big, soft foam mats. These "crash pads" protected the jumpers' necks and backs, giving them the confidence to land upside down. Today, almost every professional high jumper in the world uses the Fosbury Flop, proving that sometimes, a "flop" can actually be a huge success.