The high jump was not part of the 
Ancient Olympics, but is an event 
of Celtic origin that was brought 
to the U.S. in the late 19th 
century.  Competitive jumpers 
can clear a bar that is more than 
1 1/2' feet above their own 
height.  The bar is raised during 
the competition -- each jumper 
gets three chances at each new 
height.  After the third miss, the 
jumper is eliminated.  The jumper 
who clears the greatest height in 
the fewest attempts is the 
winner.

The event consists of the 
approach, the takeoff, crossing 
the bar, and landing.  
Traditionally, the jumper runs at 
full speed down a long runway, 
takes off on one foot and then 
straddles over the bar, rolling 
over it face down.  That 
technique changed at the 1968 
Mexico City Olympics, when U.S. 
jumper Dick Fosbury crossed the 
bar on his back.  He beat the 
previous Olympic record by 2 
1/2" with his unconventional 
style, won the Gold  and created 
a new style of jumping, 
thereafter known as the Fosbury 
Flop. 

The high jump was included in 
the first modern Olympics in 1896 
and was dominated by the 
Americans for much of the first 
half of the century.  Since 
Fosbury's Gold winning flop, no 
American has won Gold, and the 
Soviets and Eastern Europeans 
have come to dominate the event.  

No man has ever won back-to-
back Gold in the high jump, and 
only one woman has -- Romanian 
Iolanda Balas, with Golds in 1960 
and 1964.