American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury is dead. The track and field athlete who revolutionized the high jump with a technique that became known as the "Fosbury Flop" was 76 years old.

His former agent Ray Schulte wrote on Instagram: "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the news that my longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a brief battle with recurrent lymphoma." Fosbury already suffered from cancer in 2008, which was considered to be over after an operation and chemotherapy in 2009.

Fosbury rose to fame in 1968 when he won the gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics with a jump of 2.24 meters - using his new technique, in which the jumper crosses the bar backwards. Although his technique was initially viewed with skepticism, it quickly caught on.