Iolanda Balaș
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Iolanda Balaș (Template:IPA, Template:Langx, later Balázs-Sőtér Jolán; 12 December 1936 – 11 March 2016) was a Romanian athlete, an Olympic champion and former world record holder in the high jump. She was the first Romanian woman to win an Olympic gold medal and is considered to have been one of the greatest high jumpers of the twentieth century.
Early life
Balaș was born in Timișoara to an ethnic Hungarian family.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=index>Ághassi, Attila (18 November 2005) 'Sajnálom, hogy nem Magyarországnak nyertem olimpiákat'. index.hu: Én még az europoliszhoz hasonlító Temesváron születtem, 1936 decemberében. A szüleim, a rokonaim egytől-egyig magyarok, most is Magyarországon élnek. Nekem viszont nem adatott meg ez a lehetőség. "I was born in December 1936, in Timișoara which then still resembled an europolis town. My parents, my relatives are one by one Hungarians, they still live in Hungary. But I could not have this chance"</ref> Her mother, Etel Bozó was a homemaker, while her father, Frigyes, was originally a locksmith. Her father served in the Hungarian army until he was captured and brought to the Soviet Union and later back to Hungary, where he settled in Budapest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Balaș tried to reunite the family and move to Hungary, but although she managed to obtain a Hungarian passport in 1947,<ref name=index/> she was not allowed to leave Romania.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When asked in an interview in 2005 whether she had ever thought about defection, she said that it had crossed her mind; however, as it could have resulted in serious retaliation against her relatives, she did not want to risk it.<ref name=index/> In the interview she said, "I feel sorry that I did not win Olympics for Hungary. But a person represents herself and after that a nation. It was not given for me to bear the Hungarian colors, to make happy those who speak my mother tongue. It evolved this way and I feel sorry for it, but I would have gone mad if I would thought constantly about this contradictory situation. I hope that besides Romanians also Hungarians are proud of me."<ref name=index/>
Career
Balaș took up athletics owing to her caretaker Luisa Ernst, who was also a retired high jumper.<ref name=sr/> In 1953 she transferred from Timișoara club "Electrica" to CCA (CSA Steaua). After finishing fifth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she won Olympic gold medals at Rome in 1960 (becoming the first Romanian woman to do so)<ref name=newz/> and Tokyo in 1964. At the 1964 Olympics she competed with a torn tendon, which forced her later to withdraw from the 1966 European Championships. Nevertheless, between 1957 and 1966, Balaș won 154 consecutive competitions,<ref>"The Sport's Longest Winning Streak Gets Longer", Track & Field News (August 2016), p. 47.</ref> not including qualifying competitions or exhibitions. She improved the world record 14 times, from 1.75 m to 1.91 m, and equalled it once outdoors and once indoors. She was the first woman to jump over six feet. Her technique was a sophisticated version of the scissors technique.<ref name=sr>Template:Cite web</ref>
Balaș won two British WAAA Championships high jump titles at the 1962 WAAA Championships<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the 1963 WAAA Championships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name=sr/>
After retiring from competition in 1967, Balaș married her former coach Ioan Söter,<ref>Ce spunea despre boală Iolanda Balaș Söter înainte de a muri. click.ro. Retrieved 10 October 2019.</ref> and taught physical education in Bucharest. Between 1988 and 2005 she was president of the Romanian Athletics Federation.<ref name=sr/> She was also a member of the technical committee of the European Athletics Association, and in 1995 was elected to the women's commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).<ref name=cosr/>
Death
Balaș was diagnosed with type II diabetes several years before her death and was hospitalized several times after that. She died following gastric complications at Elias Hospital in Bucharest, Romania, at the age of 79.<ref name=newz>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She is buried at Ghencea Cemetery in Bucharest.
Awards
Balaș was named an honorary citizen of Timișoara (in 1999) and of Bucharest (in 2001).<ref name=cosr>Iolanda Balas. Romanian Olympic Committee</ref> In 2010, she received the royal decoration "Nihil Sine Deo" for special merits to the Romanian sports from Michael I of Romania, in a ceremony held at the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, for the way she led the Romanian Athletics Federation and to promote Romanian excellence in sport and young athletes.<ref>"Ordine și decorații" Template:Webarchive. familiaregala.ro. Retrieved 10 October 2019.</ref><ref>"Iolanda Balaş, Ivan Patzaichin şi Cristian Ţopescu au primit decoraţia regala "Nihil Sine Deo"". mediafax.ro. Retrieved 10 October 2019.</ref> In 2000, Track & Field News voted Balaș as the best female high jumper of the 20th century.<ref name=hof>Template:Cite web</ref> She was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2012.<ref name=hof/>
See also
References
External links
- Template:Olympics.com profile
- Template:SR/Olympics profile
- Iolanda Balaș at All-Athletics.com
- Iolanda Balas - 154 wins in a row — Complete list of Balaș' record win-streak
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{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Footer European Champions High Jump Women Template:Footer Universiade Champions High Jump Women Template:IAAF Hall of Fame Template:USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners in women's high jump Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- 1936 births
- 2016 deaths
- Sportspeople from Timișoara
- Romanian people of Hungarian descent
- Sportspeople of Hungarian descent
- Romanian women high jumpers
- Olympic athletes for Romania
- Olympic gold medalists for Romania
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- European Athletics Championships medalists
- World record setters in the sport of athletics
- Olympic gold medalists in athletics
- Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
- FISU World University Games gold medalists for Romania
- Burials at Ghencea Cemetery
- Medalists at the 1959 Summer Universiade
- Medalists at the 1961 Summer Universiade
- Presidents of the Romanian Athletics Federation
- Diabetes-related deaths
- 20th-century Romanian sportswomen