As a sportsphile….when I look at each different sport from a “degree of difficulty” kind of rating system…..and when it comes to high jump….it doesn’t seem to require the skills that many other disciplines in sports require…..as I consider sports from a perspective of “eye-to-hand”….or “eye-to-foot”….even “eye-to-mind”….with speed, strength and reaction time/reflex by each and every “eye-to-whatever”…..so, when it comes to high jumping….it just never rated very high with me in the “eye-to-whatever” category….but that was before Bone Daddy explained to me how long and grueling the high jump competitions are….especially at the world class level.
Anyway, I have come to respect high jump much more since that conversation with BD…..cuz it takes some serious mental preparation, focus and confidence filled with visualization to compete in high jump at the Olympic Games….and the three men left in the high jump competition at the ’84 Olympics were SWE Patrik Sjoberg, CHN Zhu Jianhua and West Germany Deiter Moegenburg….with the bar at 7’8 1/2″.