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WorldNet Service Installation Disk - Cybercathlon Games and Interactive Tour of Olympic Museum (1996).ISO
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00826_Field_st3.txt.txt
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1996-06-03
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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.