High Jump

A vertical jump over a bar between two uprights, taking off from one foot after a curved run-up. Since Dick Fosbury won the 1968 Olympic title, almost everyone clears the bar head first and back down before landing on a mat. The bar goes up in set increments, typically 3 centimetres early on and 1 or 2 at the top; each athlete gets three attempts at a height and is out after three failures in a row, and a jumper may pass a height to save energy. Ties are broken by the count of failures at the last height cleared, then by failures overall; a jump-off is used only to decide a title. Wind is not measured.