Painting of girl high school high jumper

The painting by sports artist John Robertson is  approximately 4 feet by 7 1/2 feet, acrylic on unstretched canvas.

Seventeen year old Jaimee from a small town a Northern Ontario, Canada high school, high jumps 1.55 meters and holds the record for her school.

I remember being in Junior high and then high school long before there was the high jumping technique the "Fosbury Flop" which I painted here.  In junior high school we started out using the scissors jump because it was safe and easy.  Couldn't get much height using that technique which was basically you run towards the high bar and take-off on one leg kicking it upward near the bar and try and swing it over the bar.  On the other side you land on two feet.  Kind of scissoring in the air.  Then we graduated tpo the western roll (running up to the bar , throwing the outside leg up and rounding over the bar)  The Fosbury Flop came into use in about 1965.  That is what you see here in my high jump painting.  Here is a good article about The Fosbury Flop and its beginnings

All I know is that I was not successful in any technique no matter what I tried.  As I said to my gym coach,  "I think I am allergic to the high jump."  He answered, "You will get over it."