Although the event was likely competed in as early as the ancient Greek Olympics, the first recorded high jump competition took place in Scotland in the early 19th century, with clearances of up to 5'6" (1.68 m) measured. Early jumpers used either a straight on approach or a scissors technique. In the latter, the bar was approached on a diagonal, and the jumper threw first the inside leg and then the other over the bar in a scissoring motion. Around the turn of the century, techniques began to modernise, starting with M.F. Sweeney's Eastern cut-off. By taking off as in the scissors, but extending his back and flattening out over the bar, the Irish-American gained a more economic clearance and took the world record to 6'5-5/8" (1.97 m) in 1895.
Another American, M.F. Horine, developed a yet more efficient technique, the 'Western roll'. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Horine took the world standard to 6'7" (2.01 m) in 1912. His technique predominated through the Berlin Olympics of 1936 where the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03 m (6'9-3/4").
American and then Russian jumpers dominated the next four decades, which saw the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their (belly-down) torso around the bar, obtaining the most economical clearance to date. Straddle-jumper Charles Dumas broke the elusive 7' (2.13 m) barrier in 1956, and American wunderkind John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23 m (7'3-3/4") in 1960. Valeri Brumel took over the event for the next four years. The elegant Soviet jumper radically sped up his approach run, took the record up to 2.28 m (7'5-3/4"), and won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, before a motorcycle accident foreshortened his career.
American coaches, including two-time NCAA champion Frank Costello of the University of Maryland, flocked to Russia to learn from Brumel and his coaches. However it would be a solitary innovator at Oregon State University, Dick Fosbury, who would bring the high jump into the next century. Taking advantage of the raised, softer landing areas by then in use, Fosbury added a new twist to the outmoded Eastern Cut-off. He directed himself over the bar head and shoulders first, sliding over on his back and landing in a fashion which would likely have broken his neck in the old sawdust landing pits. After he used this Fosbury flop to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal, the technique began to spread around the world, and soon floppers were dominating international high jump competitions. The last straddler to set a world record was the late Vladimir Yashchenko, who cleared 2.33 m (7'7-3/4") in 1977 and then 2.35 m ((7'8-1/2") indoors in 1978.
Among renowned high jumpers following Fosbury's lead were: Americans Dwight Stones and his rival, 5'8" (1.73 m) Franklin Jacobs, who cleared 2.32 m (7'7-1/2"), an astounding two feet (0.59 m) over his head; Chinese record-setters Ni-chi Chin and Zhu Jianhua; Germans Gerd Wessig and Dietmar M�genburg; Swedish Olympic medalist and world record holder Patrik Sj�berg; and female jumpers Iolanda Balas of Romania, Ulrike Meyfarth of Germany and Italy's Sara Simeoni.
