Dick Fosbury's high jump failure (4)
I believe the answer is:
flop
'failure' is the definition.
(I know that flop is a type of failure)
'dick fosbury's high jump' is the wordplay.
'dick' becomes 'pol' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'high' suggests taking the first letters (I've seen 'highest of' mean this (top letter - down clues only)).
'jump' says the letters should be written backwards (I've seen 'jumping' mean this (in a down clue, letters jump up)).
The initial letter of 'fosburys' is 'f'.
'pol'+'f'='polf'
'polf' in reverse letter order is 'FLOP'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for flop that I've seen before include "Collapse loosely - total failure" , "crash" , "Theatrical failure" , "Dud - bomb" , "Fall clumsily, liked failed play" .)