"Must read for track and field geeks or anyone who loves an underdog story. Which is just about all of us."
       —Mary Pilon, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Kevin Show and The Monopolists
 
"Not only shines a much-deserved spotlight on the man who revolutionized an entire sport, but also on the unique and marvelous path that got him there."
       —Mike Rich, screenwriter, The Rookie, Secretariat and Finding Forrester
 
No athlete has ever done what Dick Fosbury did in 1968: revolutionized his sport. Lots of people know the story of how the Oregon State graduate re-invented the high-jump event with his backward-over-the-bar style. But few know the struggles he endured to achieve that success. From the death of a younger brother to nearly dying himself, from flunking out of college and nearly being drafted, Fosbury cleared far more obstacles than a high-jump bar. And even when he had seemingly made the US Olympic team, he faced a "redo" that nobody saw coming. This is a book of loss, survival and triumph, twined in a person (Foz), a time (the '60s) and a place (a fantasy-like Olympic Trials setting high in the Sierra Nevada) clearly made for one another. It is a story of a young man who refused to listen to those who laughed at him, those who doubted him, and those who tried to make him someone he was not. (Hard cover.)