The Brill-Fosbury Nexus
Dick Fosbury / Debbie Brill
To truly grasp the evolution of the high jump, one must delve into two connected narratives.
Our first main character is Dick Fosbury, the man who revolutionized the high jump. When I discuss sports and management in my lectures (yes, people are genuinely interested in these niche topics), I often portray Fosbury as the perfect anti-hero. He wasn’t particularly athletic, nor did he hold a world record, yet in 1968, he clinched gold at the Mexico City Olympics with a novel, almost eccentric, jumping style.
Let’s rewind the tape of high jump history. At the “Habonim” school in Haifa, we all learned to leap over a bar using the scissor style. This rudimentary technique dates back to the 19th century. Later, athletes began to arch their backs while performing the scissor jump, a move that made them look somewhat comical.
Fast forward to the 1912 Paris Olympics, where an American named George Horine introduced the world to the “Western Roll.” The name evokes culinary finesse, but it was merely a technical leap forward. Over the subsequent decades, the world record in high jump inched upward, as athletes using this style refined it, improving the record by mere centimeters each time. By the time of the Munich Olympics, the “Straddle” technique emerged, an evolution of the “Western Roll.” This new approach pushed the boundaries of the world record further. Between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s, amidst the geopolitical tug-of-war of the Cold War, the record seesawed between American and Soviet athletes. Then came Fosbury with his groundbreaking method.
Fosbury’s approach, which you shouldn’t try at home, involved sprinting in an arc toward the bar and launching himself with a half-turn, back-first. In mid-air, he would arch his back and straighten his legs to clear the bar. His landings were often awkward, and it’s a wonder this sport doesn’t mandate helmets.
But here’s the twist: Fosbury wasn’t the first to use this technique. Or perhaps he was, but two years earlier and a few kilometers north in Canada, a 13-year-old girl named Debbie Brill had demonstrated a strikingly similar style at the Canadian Championships. This could very well be her story. Three years later, she would claim the Canadian Championship and hold the national record for 15 years. This, unfortunately, is one of those rare documented instances where a woman’s innovation was overshadowed by a man’s subsequent acclaim.
Returning to Fosbury, his unorthodox method wasn’t initially welcomed. Critics sought to disqualify his record, arguing that it would endanger young athletes who might break their necks imitating him (a ludicrous claim — we manage to injure ourselves with far simpler techniques). Because Fosbury was American, it took at least a decade for Russian athletes to adopt his style. In organizational contexts, however, the situation is markedly different. When a new, effective solution is discovered, everyone eagerly embraces it. There’s no need for change management because the benefits are clear. One of my favorite expressions (attributed to who-knows-whom) is NIH — Not Invented Here — or PFE — Proudly Found Elsewhere. The ability to adopt external solutions is vital for organizations aspiring to grow and innovate. Large companies often acquire innovative startups to integrate (or sometimes eliminate) new solutions within their existing frameworks. The challenge arises when the entity that acquires the innovation is not the one responsible for its implementation. This phase involves psychological hurdles — overcoming existing paradigms and allowing external innovations to take root. In simpler terms, it involves a lot of egos.
1978 marked the last year a world record was set using a style other than Fosbury’s. In 1989, Bulgarian athlete Stefka Kostadinova set the women’s world record at 2.09 meters. Six years later, Cuban Javier Sotomayor broke the men’s world record for the final time, setting it at 2.45 meters. Over thirty years later, these records still stand. Recently, we’ve seen many records in athletics broken due to advancements in training techniques, superior tracks, enhanced running gear, and shoes (and perhaps more effective drugs), but not in the high jump (nor in the long jump). The world is waiting for the next Fosbury-style breakthrough. Or maybe the next Brill-style innovation, and this time, we’ll make sure she gets the credit.
