A tribute to Iolanda Balas

Iolanda Balas passed away at the age of 79.

România Internațional, 15.03.2016, 13:05

Iolanda Balas was a double Olympic champion in the high-jump event. In her career, she set 5 Olympic and 14 world records. For 11 years running her trail was an all-win one, while the 140 competitions she consecutively won were reason enough for her to be included in the Book of World Records.

Iolanda Balas took up athletics when she was 13, with the Electrica Club in Timisoara, western Romania. Her first notable feat as a senior athlete occurred at the age of 19 when she came in second at the European Championships in Berne. On July 14, 1956, Iolanda Balas for the first time in her career broke the world record, with a jump of 1 meter 76 centimeters.

Iolanda Balas had the status of the great favorite of the Melbourne Olympics. Her husband Ioan Soter, who was also Iolanda’s coach, was forbidden to leave for Melbourne, because he had a brother who had settled in Australia. Deprived of technical assistance, Iolanda Balas only managed an unassuming 5th position. Back in Romania, Iolanda Balas had to face accusations of having deliberately done poorly in the Olympics. Back then Iolanda Balas had gone through the most difficult moments of her sporting life. However, that would be the last defeat in her entire career.

At the European Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1958, Iolanda Balas walked away with the gold medal. Two years later, in 1960, she became Olympic champion, with a new world record she set for a jump of 1 meter 85 centimeters. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, in 1964, she won yet another title. A string of world records occurred between the two Olympic wins.

Iolanda Balsa Soter’s blazing trail took her all the way up to yet another Olympic title she was supposed to win in Mexico City in 1968. One year before the Olympics, in 1967, Iolanda Balas suffered an injury and had no choice other than to give up sports altogether, after 11 years with no defeat on her record sheet.

In the years that followed, the former great athlete focused on the technical aspects of athletics. She got a string of specialized works published. From 1991 to 2005, Iolanda Balas Sőter was President of the Romanian Athletics Federation. During her term in office, Romanian athletics saw a significant boost, managerially as well as in terms of performance.

(Translated by E. Nasta)