OLYMPIC SPORTS EVENTS THAT HAVE CHANGED THE MOST?

The original Olympics had two sports events: Running and Wrestling.

The funny part states that if you couldn’t wrestle, you ran, had to run, or the wresters would catch you.

Every sport since has fit somewhere between wrestling and running.

At least that’s the theory.

It led to the long race, the short and intermediate races, followed by lifting, throwing, and heaving heavy objects.

People started getting air with the high jump, broad jump, triple jump, and pole vault.

In all of sports events tied to the Olympics, which one has changed the most?

There is only one based on my experience, and it’s not Rhythmic Gymnastics or Synchronised Swimming, though there’s nothing wrong with those.

It’s also not Break Dancing, Sport Climbing, Skateboarding, or Surfing. Those are the new sports debuting at Paris 2024.

A Classic

The top picture shows the great Valeriy Brumel in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics before he crashed a motorcycle and ended his jumping career. That was the same Games that crowned Bullet Bob Hayes as the fastest man in the world.

His gold medal was the second to last last awarded to high jumpers who slinked over the bar with a Western Roll. The last was Munich 1972.

The ‘Eastern Cut-Off’ was a more sophisticated version of the basic ‘Scissors’ style, but that was largely superseded by the ‘Western Roll’, as used by George Horine of the USA when claiming the inaugural IAAF world record in 1912 with 2.00m, and the ‘Straddle’, the first outstanding exponent of what was also termed the ‘Belly Roll’ being another American, Dave Albritton, co-holder of the world record with 2.07m in 1936.

How good was Brumel? He won the silver medal in the Rome Olympics of 1960, the games where Cassius Clay won gold, and went on to set six world records.

That good.

The High Jump Evolved In Mexico City 1968

Dick Fosbury changed his sport more than any athlete changed any sports events.

In Brumel’s day cleaning seven feet was a milestone

Fosbury set an Olympic record of 7′ 4 1/4″.

Today the Olympic record is 7′ 10″ set by Charles Austin in 1996.

The world record takes it up a notch to 8′ 1/4″ set in 1993. (One site has it at 8′ 1/2″.)

Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor is the greatest high jumper of all time and has held the world record since 1993. 

I’ll do the math: He’s held the record for twenty-nine years.

Imagine standing inside a normal house with an eight foot ceiling and somehow lifting your body over the top.

And landing on your neck. Ready?

Your Greatest Change In Sports Events?

Is it the change from set shot to jump shot in basketball?

Or adding the curve ball to the arsenal of baseball pitchers?

The forward pass in football?

1

In basketball there’s a saying that “you can’t teach height.”

The big guys swatted everything away with, “Get that sh!t out of here.”

Then the little guys started popping from distance, going out longer and longer to where no one believed they could make that shot so why guard them.

Before anyone could figure it out, the big guys started stepping out and drilling three pointers.

2

Baseball has always had flame throwing pitchers leaving batters at the plate wondering what just happened.

The curve ball kept everyone honest as it started out wide and hooked across the plate.

Batters who stood in the box might see a fast ball, an inside pitch, a curve ball, then another heater before heading back to the dugout and throwing things and breaking stuff.

It’s worse when a really good curve makes a really good hitter flinch and duck.

3

Early NFL football teams in leather helmets used to line up and bulldoze each other at the line of scrimmage.

The running backs had names like Dutch, Bronco, Kink, Tuffy, Ace, Pug, and Stumpy.

Tough guys in the trenches ran into tough guys until one team managed to score.

Then they figured out another way to move the ball: Airmail.

Sports Events Always Change, But . . .

No one turns their back on the basket and flings the ball over their head.

No one bats with one hand.

And no one runs the football if a pass would be more effective, except the Seattle Seahawks in the last play of the their Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots. That was a bad pass.

No one changed their sport more than Dick Fosbury when he approached the high jump pit from the opposite side and turned his back, planted, lifted, and landed.

Was it diet and training? He wasn’t on the juice that forced him to launch a high jump revolution.

Was it going to college at Oregon State?

What change in sports events are you looking forward to?