high jump

high jump
1. a field event in which athletes, using a running start, compete in jumping for height over a crossbar supported by two upright poles.
2. a jump for height made in this event.
[1890-95]

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Track-and-field event of jumping for height.

The equipment includes a semicircular runway allowing an approach run of at least 49 ft (15 m), the raised bar and its vertical supports, and a cushioned landing area. Jumpers must leave the ground from one foot. Three failed jumps at a height result in disqualification. Early jumping styles, including the near-erect scissors jump and the facedown Western roll-and-straddle, were largely superseded from 1968 by the faceup "Fosbury flop," named for its leading proponent, the U.S. jumper Dick Fosbury.

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  sport in athletics (track and field) in which the athlete takes a running jump to attain height. The sport's venue (see illustration—>) includes a level, semicircular runway allowing an approach run of at least 15 metres (49.21 feet) from any angle within its 180° arc. Two rigid vertical uprights support a light horizontal crossbar in such a manner that it will fall if touched by a contestant trying to jump over it. The jumper lands in a pit beyond the bar that is at least 5 by 3 metres (16.4 feet by 9.8 feet) in size and filled with cushioning material. The standing high jump was last an event in the 1912 Olympics. The running high jump, an Olympic (Olympic Games) event for men since 1896, was included in the first women's Olympic athletics program in 1928.

  The only formal requirement of the high jumper is that the takeoff of the jump be from one foot. Many styles have evolved, including the now little-used scissors, or Eastern, method, in which the jumper clears the bar in a nearly upright position; the Western roll and straddle, with the jumper's body face-down and parallel to the bar at the height of the jump; and a more recent backward-twisting, diving style often termed the Fosbury flop, after its first prominent exponent, the 1968 American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury (Fosbury, Dick).

      In competition the bar is raised progressively as contestants succeed in clearing it. Entrants may begin jumping at any height above a required minimum. Knocking the bar off its supports constitutes a failed attempt, and three failures at a given height disqualify the contestant from the competition. Each jumper's best leap is credited in the final standings. In the case of ties, the winner is the one with the fewest misses at the final height, or in the whole competition, or with the fewest total jumps in the competition.

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Universalium. 2010.

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