Dick Fosbury died last year. I love the story of him arriving at the Olympics, as a 21 year old, with his own technique that he has developed even as he was advised against it.<p>He was given a blue and a white pair of spikes by Adidas, and he wore one color on each foot.<p>He went on to win the gold medal, and his technique went on to dominate the sport.
Back in high school I was a state almost-champion in high jump a few times. The technique doesn’t leave much room for error once the bar is taller than the jumper. Sure was a lot of fun though.
Given his penchant for exploring jumping techniques, it is probably unsurprising that Fosbury would retire to become an engineer!<p>Cultural evolution (both in terms of materials and practices) is a nice lens to view the history of Track and Field. There are many other innovative techniques in the sport, not all of which became IAAF legal: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXGB51C_dRE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXGB51C_dRE</a>
Got any picks for past, present, or future 'Fosbury Flops' of programming languages (which could use a game-changing technique!)? And no, language-X-on-ChatGPT doesn't count! :-)