Iolanda Balaş
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| Medal record | ||
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| File:Iolanda Balas.jpg Iolanda Balaş |
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| Women’s Athletics | ||
Competitor for  Romania |
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| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 1960 Rome | High Jump |
| Gold | 1964 Tokyo | High Jump |
| European Championships | ||
| Gold | 1958 Stockholm | High Jump |
| Gold | 1962 Belgrade | High Jump |
| Silver | 1954 Berne | High Jump |
| Universiade | ||
| Gold | 1959 Torino | High Jump |
| Gold | 1961 Sofia | High Jump |
Iolanda Balaş (later Söter, Hungarian: Jolán Balázs, born 12 December 1936) is a Romanian former athlete (Romanian father and Hungarian mother) and an Olympic champion in high-jump, considered one of the greatest high jumpers ever.
She was born in Timişoara.
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 (beaten by Ilona Gusenbauer from Austria), when jumpers with a more efficient technique (the straddle technique, and later the Fosbury style) took over.
[edit] External links
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Thelma Hopkins |
Women's High Jump World Record Holder 14 July 1956 – 1 December 1956 |
Succeeded by Mildred McDaniel |
| Records | ||
| Preceded by Mildred McDaniel |
Women's High Jump World Record Holder 13 October 1957 – 17 November 1957 |
Succeeded by Cheng Feng-jung |
| Records | ||
| Preceded by Cheng Feng-jung |
Women's High Jump World Record Holder 7 June 1958 – 4 September 1971 |
Succeeded by Ilona Gusenbauer |
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