WOW a true pioneer of invention!

I can actually remember watching this, I was 16, ( I'm getting old !) And my fathers comment "DAMN...that can't be legal!" he was totally dumbfounded.

everyone laughed at the beginning... It just shows you that if everyone is doing? something one way, it doesn't mean it's the best way!!

#2 I don't remember it since i wasn't born at time, also my father doesn't remember it, since he didn't have an TV on 1968

it makes me remember something entirely different.
if you dont mind me sharing, continue reading.

i m sure you all know chess and some special moves like castle or empasant.
in 1978 Tim Krabbé published a chess puzzles book. and as a joke he invented the vertical castle.
if you didnt move your king and manged to under-improve your "e pawn" to a rook and finally if there were no other peace occupying or threatening e line, then theoretically (at those times rules) you may castle vertically (king moves 2 square up and rook moves 7 square down). he also notated that move as 0-0-0-0.
that idea made chess people change the castling rule. and now that is just a litle known chess history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Krabb%C3%A9

Remember seeing it at the time. It was only possible for this 'new' jump to be used because of the introduction of thick foam-filled mats. These didn't exist much before this particular Olympics.

Think different.

The Wikipedia entry on Dick Fosbury is very interesting. He was actually doing a scissor kick that gradually morphed into a backwards flight once his high school switched to a foam mat before his junior season. He wasn't the only one in the US that tried it but he gained the most media attention. He researched the rules and the rules only say that you have to take off of one foot, they don't specify how you go over the bar.

Nothing beats these kenyans..
http://www.snotr.com/video/11201/Kenyan_High_Jump

gaming the system...