Before Dick Fosbury, high jumpers went over the bar face down using the straddle or the scissors. As a teenager at Medford High in Oregon, Fosbury worked out a different way. He went over backward, head first. People thought it looked strange. A newspaper caption even said “Fosbury flops over bar,” and the name stuck. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the crowd was so surprised by his style that they stopped cheering and just watched. The 21-year-old won gold with an Olympic record of 2.24 meters. Four years later, 28 of the 40 jumpers at the Olympics were using his flop. Doing the right thing a new way can look odd at first. Do not be afraid to be faithful even when you look different from everyone else.
The 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome started at 5:30 in the evening and finished in the dark, with torches lighting the ancient streets. One of the runners was an Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila, and he was running barefoot. By 20 kilometers, he and Morocco’s Rhadi Ben Abdesselam had taken the lead, and they ran side by side for miles. About 500 meters from the finish, on the torchlit way, Bikila finally pulled away and won by 25 seconds. He crossed the line under the Arch of Constantine. People expected the favorite to win, not an unknown runner without shoes. You do not need the best equipment to finish the race God set before you. You need to keep running.
In 1925 Gertrude Ederle tried to swim the English Channel. After eight hours and 46 minutes her coach made her stop because he feared she was swallowing too much saltwater. She disagreed, fired him, and came back the next year. On August 6, 1926, she entered the water in France at 7:08 in the morning. Twice that day squalls hit, and her new trainer urged her to quit. Her father and sister, riding in the boat, agreed with her that she should keep going. At 9:04 that night, after 14 hours and 31 minutes, she reached England. She became the first woman to swim the Channel and beat the previous record by two hours. Sometimes the voices that tell you to keep going are the ones worth hearing.
In 1854 most people believed cholera spread through bad air. Dr. John Snow held the unpopular view that it spread through water. When cholera broke out again in London at the end of August 1854, Snow suspected the Broad Street pump. He did not just guess. He went through the death records and talked with the families of the dead, and he found that most of the victims had lived near that pump and drunk its water. He took his findings to the community leaders, and on September 8, 1854, the pump handle was removed. The new deaths stopped. Snow was willing to go door to door and to stand by an unpopular truth. Truth spoken with care and courage can save lives.
Rocky Bleier finished his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1968, then was drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. After only three months his platoon was ambushed in a rice paddy. A bullet hit his left thigh, and a grenade sent shrapnel through his right leg, taking part of his foot. Doctors said he would never play football again. In the hospital ward, a young triple amputee stopped at every bed each day to encourage the others. Bleier thought, if he could do that, what about me? He decided right there he would walk again. He went on to win four Super Bowls with the Steelers. One encourager can change a man’s whole direction.
