History Help: Which High Jumper did this?

Track & Field High Jump
1

Hi Everyone,

I remember hearing a story about a world class highjumper who went to a major championships and underperformed because they were distracted by the camera crews etc. Anyway, apparently they went away and in practice encouraged people to walk around and talk etc while they were jumping so they learned to jump well and block out the distractions. Having mastered this appraoch they apparently then came back and won a Major Competition (Olympics, WCs I can’t remember).

If anywone can help me with who this was or have a source for the story I would be most grateful.

Thanks,

TC

2

Hmmm - seem to ring a bell. I heard that the coach of Gerd Wessig used to do all sorts of stuff like that - even brought a bucket of water on a sunny day to train Wessig´s ability to jump on a weet surface.

Wessig won in 1980 in a new WR - 2,36 m

Don’t know if it´s true though :slight_smile: