I recall going to one of the old ITA Pro Indoor track meets. I recall a picture, possibly on the cover, of Delamere in his WSU jersey. My older brother and I started doing it too. He ended up a whacked out skier doing all kinds of flips and me, well, though never injured doing a flip, chose an event, shall we say, much closer to the ground, at least according to the human eye. I say bring it back, maybe we can win some X-Gamers over. Allen James
> > Subject: t-and-f: long jump with a flip > > > > Someone who knows far more about track than I do wrote: > > > >> I seem to recall that long jump with a flip looked like a > mechanical > >> improvement before it was banned. > > > > That must have been a truly revolutionary technique. Who was > doing it, and > > when, and how far? > > > A quick history, just off the top of my head: Idaho State coach Dave > Nielsen > is pictured in the pages of T&FN around '73 using the technique. At > the '74 > Pac-8 meet in the LA Coliseum, John Delamere of Washington State > absolutely > blew the crowd away by using the style. As I recall, jumped > somehting like > 25-4 3/4 wind-aided. In '75 Bruce Jenner used it and added about a > foot to > his best, but the IAAF shortly thereafter banned the technique, > citing > "safety issues." I think they were premature in so doing. > > I think Delamere went on to become a member of the New Zealand > parliament. > > gh
