The year is 1968. The place: Mexico. 

The 19th Olympic Games have just started and the crowd holds its breath as a little-known American high-jumper, Dick Fosbury, attempts his first jump. To the crowd’s amazement, as he approaches the high-jump bar, Fosbury turns his back towards the bar, instead of the customary way of turning one’s body towards it. He flips over the bar backwards, brings his legs up and sets a new world record of 7 ft. 4 inches. For decades, no high-jumper thought this radical jumping method was possible or could even be successful but guess what? Dick Fosbury thought the opposite and the Fosbury Flop has since become the “conventional” technique for high-jumping. Literally speaking, Fosbury has turned a flop into a success.