High Jump, Women

The overwhelming favorite was Romania’s Iolanda Balaş. She was the world record holder with 1.86 (6-1¼), and had easily won the 1958 European Championships. Since Melbourne, Balaş had broken the world record nine times, and in Bucuresti on 18 October 1958, she became the first woman to jump over 6 feet, when she won that competition with 1.83 metres. She was undefeated since Melbourne and would, in fact, win 140 consecutive high jump events between Melbourne and June 1967. Track historians consider her the most dominant single field event athlete in history, rivaled among track athletes only by Edwin Moses. She was a scissors jumper and when she used that technique to jump 1.73 (5-8) in Roma, she had the gold medal. She then also succeeded with jumps at 1.76 (5-9¼) and 1.81 (5-11¼) (both 1st attempts), and 1.85 (6-0¾) metres (2nd attempt).