High Jump...Dick Fosbury and 'the flop'

For the majority of people, the high jump has always had one particular style...the 'Fosbury Flop'. The athlete essentially jumps over the bar head first with their shoulders and back closest to the ground with their legs trailing behind and then flipped upwards at the last moment. It may seem that it was always this way but prior to 1968, high jump techniques were completely different.

In the early part of the 20th century, the 'scissors' was popular but this was largely replaced later with variations of the 'straddle'. This technique was the dominant style until the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968 when a relatively unknown US high jumper called Dick Fosbury took the Gold.....(video HERE although it's a bit long)

The Guardian had an interesting piece on the 'Fosbury Flop' on Tuesday and how it changed the high jump forever.....Article HERE

In this interview, Dick Fosbury talks about the technique named after him and it's impact on the sport...

Guardian article on John Carlos and the black power salute of the 1968 Olympics...

This must be one of the most iconic photographs taken during any Olympic games. The 60's were a turbulent time in the US with the civil rights movement looking for equality for the countries non-white population. Just months before the Olympic Games in Mexico, Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

On the morning of 16 October 1968, U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 metre race in a world-record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia's Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the U.S.'s John Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to collect their medals at the podium. The two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S. and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges after Norman, a critic of Australia's White Australia Policy, expressed empathy with their ideals.

Both U.S. athletes intended on bringing black gloves to the event, but Carlos forgot his, leaving them in the Olympic Village. It was the Australian, Peter Norman, who suggested Carlos wear Smith's left-handed glove, this being the reason behind him raising his left hand, as opposed to his right, differing from the traditional Black Power salute. When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."

Norman passed away in October 2006 in Melbourne at the age of 64. Thirty-eight years after the three made history, both Smith and Carlos gave eulogies and were pallbearers at Norman's funeral.

The Guardian have an interesting article on John Carlos HERE

Final post for the Dublin City Marathon.....
The is the final post before the Dublin Marathon. I'll update the weather forecast below as close to the day as I can.

Good luck to everyone making the trip to Dublin. I know there is is a big group from Cork going but this blog gets visits from all over Munster and Ireland and I'm sure there are people travelling from every corner of the country. I guess we all have certain target times in mind but the main thing is to just finish the Marathon. You'll see I have a quote at the bottom of this page from the great Emil Zatopek who said... "If you want to win something, run the 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

It really is the ultimate distance regardless of what time you do...

This is a video I found some time back of John Stephen Akhwari in Mexico, 1968.