Iolanda Balaş
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Women's Athletics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 1960 Rome | High Jump | |
| Gold | 1964 Tokyo | High Jump | |
Iolanda Balaş or Balázs Jolán (born December 12, 1936 in Timişoara) is a Romanian former athlete of ethnic Hungarian origin and an Olympic champion in high-jump, considered one of the greatest high jumpers ever.
After finishing fifth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she won two Olympic gold medals at Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. Between 1957 and 1967, Balaş won 140 consecutive competitions, improving the world record 14 times, from 1.74 m to 1.91 m. She was the first woman to jump over six feet. Her technique was a sophisticated version of the scissors technique.
Her record of 1.91 m, set in 1961, lasted until the end of 1971, when jumpers with a more efficient technique (the straddle technique, and later the Fosbury style) took over.
| Olympic champions in women's high jump |
|---|
| 1928: Ethel Catherwood | 1932: Jean Shiley | 1936: Ibolya Csák | 1948: Alice Coachman | 1952: Esther Brand | 1956: Mildred McDaniel | 1960: Iolanda Balaş | 1964: Iolanda Balaş | 1968: Miloslavá Rezková | 1972: Ulrike Meyfarth | 1976: Rosemarie Ackermann | 1980: Sara Simeoni | 1984:Ulrike Meyfarth | 1988: Louise Ritter | 1992: Heike Henkel | 1996: Stefka Kostadinova | 2000: Yelena Yelesina | 2004: Yelena Slesarenko |
