Here’s a short FLASH article today featuring one of my favorite track & field heroes when I was a kid.
Dwight Stones is one of America’s greatest track & field athletes. He was a dominant force in the high jump in the 1970s.
At 18 years old he qualified for the USA Olympic team to Munich in 1972. He won the bronze medal using the still somewhat new Fosbury Flop technique in which the athlete jumps up with their back to the bar.
In the summer of 1973, at age 19, Stones returned to Munich for a track meet.
Here’s the report from my virtual trip back to see it 50 years ago yesterday:
Dwight Stones Returns to Munich
MUNICH, WEST GERMANY - July 11, 1973
I’m in the Olympic stadium in Munich for the first major track meet since the Olympics took place here last summer.
Competing in the high jump is Dwight Stones, the bronze medalist from the USA in 1972.
Let’s watch Stones final attempt.
The bar has been raised to a potential world record height of 7 feet 6-1/2 inches.
Stones grazes the bar ever so slightly, on what otherwise appears to be a perfect jump in which most of his body has cleared the height by over 2 inches.
There is a moment of hesitation in the stadium as the bar settles.
It is remaining in place!
Stones has done it!
He has smashed the world record. And he is still a teenager!
Stones, who uses the Fosbury Flop method, has just become the first flopper to ever set the world record.
A Somber Moment
My visit here requires a moment of reflection.
It is just 10 months since the murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches in a terrorist attack inside the Munich Olympic village.
This heinous act of terror marks the low point of the entire modern Olympic movement.
In a show of resilience, the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the “Jewish Olympics”, had their opening ceremonies in Tel-Aviv 2 nights ago on July 9, 1973.
POSTCRIPT From The Sports Time Traveler™
Dwight Stones Interviewed
Stones was quoted in the New York Times after the meet saying, “For 2 months I’ve been psyched out thinking about a world record. Now I can relax.”
1976 Montreal Olympics
3 years after his world record high jump, Dwight Stones competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
I was 12 years old and my father and grandfather took me to see the track & field events at the Olympics. This was an incredible grandfather - father - son experience and the most amazing week of my life up to that time.
Meeting Dwight Stones
During that week, in Montreal, I actually got to meet Dwight Stones on the practice track which was just outside the Olympic stadium. That was one of the big thrills of my Olympic spectator experience.
Running on the Track in Munich in 1983
10 years after Dwight Stones world record high jump, in Munich, in 1983, I had the opportunity to run on the Munich Olympic stadium track and also pay a personal homage to the slain Israelis. Here is a photo of me running on the Olympic stadium track.
It was a late December day and I was wearing an overcoat, heavy corduroy pants and hiking boots as I was backpacking through Europe with my friends Brad, Phil and Dave. We went to the stadium and found it quite unbelievably open and empty, so we went down to walk around the track.
In spite of the less than optimal attire, I decided to take off my coat run a quarter mile.
I managed to clock 57 seconds for a lap on the track. Since I was never a sprinter, I have always been proud of that performance which is probably the best quarter mile I will ever run.
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