Iolanda Balaș was a Romanian athlete, an Olympic champion and former world record holder in the women"s high jump.
Background
Balaș was born in Timișoara into a family of Hungarian descent. 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.
Career
Balaș tried to reunite the family and move to Hungary, but although she managed to obtain an Hungarian passport in 1947, she was not allowed to leave Romania. 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 lieutenant
But a person represents herself and after that a nation.
lieutenant 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 medical "
At the 1964 Olympics she competed with a torn tendon, which forced her later to withdraw from the 1966 European Championships.
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.
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. After retiring from competition in 1967, Balaș married her former coach Ion Soter (János Sőtér), and taught physical education in Bucharest. Between 1988 and 2005 she was president of the Romanian Athletics Federation.
Balaș was diagnosed several years ago with type II diabetes.
Due to ill health, she was hospitalized many times. In late February 2016, she went to the hospital with digestive problems and was discharged, but returned to the hospital two days later.
She died at Elias Hospital in Bucharest, Romania, at the age of 79.