the year is 1968 we're at the Olympic
Games in Mexico City dick Fosbury has
just made a record-breaking high jump
winning the gold medal and completely
changing how future athletes approach
the high jump but let's rewind and see
how critical thinking played a part in
getting Fosbury here four years high
jumpers used a variety of techniques all
of which allowed for the jumper to land
on their feet
after clearing the bar athletes assumed
that these were the most optimal methods
but in highschool Fosbury tried them and
found himself getting below average
results so he asked himself hmm how else
could I jump over this bar instead of
accepting the norm he began
experimenting and came up with a new and
different jumping method he would jump
and rotate in the air so that he went
over the bar headfirst on his back at
the time he was laughed at and
criticized for this new method it looked
pretty silly and was so different from
the typical methods but it worked
due to some unexpected benefits it
lowered Fosbury center of gravity
actually placing it below the bar even
though he himself was jumping over it
this allowed him to use less energy
while increasing his height and by
leaping backwards he was reducing his
chances of knocking the bar off with his
arms and legs using this technique
Fosbury was jumping higher than anyone
else on his high school track team
he continued to hone this method in
college and moved on to qualify for the
Olympics and so here we are back in 1968
with Fosbury winning the Olympic gold
medal he took a problem not being able
to jump particularly high and used
critical thinking to come up with a
solution a new way of jumping that
greatly improved his results to this day
almost every high jumper uses this
method now known as the Fosbury flop and
so it just goes to show how critical
thinking can both raise the bar and
change the game
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