“It is with a very heavy heart I have to release the news that longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma.”
Four-time Olympian Michael Johnson also paid tribute to the “true legend”.
“The world legend is probably used too often. Dick Fosbury was a true LEGEND!” he said.
“He changed an entire event for ever with a technique that looked crazy at the time, but the result made it the standard.”
Before Fosbury, high jumpers would clear the bar by running parallel to it then leaping over with a scissors kick.
By the 1972 Olympics, 28 of the 40 competing athletes were using the Fosbury Flop, with to this day, the technique taught to young athletes.
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