On March 6, 1947, Dick Fosbury was born.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. A True Pioneer

There are multiple physics & biomechanics reasons why this works so much better than the old methods. But, Dick didn't know about those until later. It was all just trial & error rooted in necessity.
Just shear determination and sweat changed his path & the entire event.
One nit to pick in one of the snips:

And of the 44 Olympic gold medalists to compete in the high jump from 1972 through 2016, 42 used the flop including all the new world record setters. Today it remains the most popular technique in modern high jumping.

From 1972 to 2016, there were only 12 Olympic games. That's 12 gold medals & 36 medalists. There couldn't have been 44 gold medalists. There could gave been enough ties for the bronze to make 46 medalists, but ties for third 8 out of 12 times? Seems like something I'd remember. (I've always followed the event closely having been a participant.)
Maybe this meant to include World Championship titles, but even that math isn't right as there have been 22 world championships in that period.
I know it's a tangential point, but it's confusing me.