Iolanda Balas

[The Fern]

I just saw the '60 Olympic film and got to see her jump (finally) and I am agog! The video of her raking her run-up was cool.

But here's the thing. She jumped 1.91 doing that modified scissor thingy of hers.

I believe you can flop as much as 30cm higher then you can scissor. Imagine what she sould have flopped off of our surfaces into our pits.

The mind boggles.

[hj197steve]

Ed, she was born in 1936, and got 5th in 1956 and 1sts in 1960 and 1964, so I bet that film was for 1960 or 1964, certainly not 1948.

When I was in college in the early 60's I had a page color photo of her, from SI, up on my dorm room wall, along with a similar picture of, ( of course) Valery Brumel.

[The Fern]

Oops I watched the '48 and '60 film back to back and had a brain fart.

I fixed it.

[hj197steve]

Well Ed I had an unfair advantage in knowing, as Iolanda and I were contemporaries and I had the hots for her. She looked pretty good in that picture I had. Sadly it's been lost in the sands of time.

[Tvarish]

Just to add my 2 cents worth, I feel she is head and shoulders above everyone else as the greatest hj of all time. I know women get short changed at times, but she dominated like no other (Brumel, Kostadinova, Soto, etc.). Would like people's feedback who were hj's or saw a lot of the old-timers.

[jhc68]

She was clearly the best of the era and jumping that high with that technique indicates a lot more potential than she was able to realize landing in sand and sawdust pits.

What about her genetics? Did she quit competing along with the Press sisters when chromosome checks began, or was her career over by then? I hope, for hjsteve's romantic interests that the end of her career was just coincidentally about the same time

[The Fern]

I don't know...she looked pretty cute to me too. I have the same comment for her that I had for Heike Henkel, "If she'd been jumping in Europe when I was there, I'd have followed her around like a puppy dog."

I think after not losing for ten years she just retired coincidental with the Presses.

[Jon]

>I think after not losing for ten years she just retired coincidental with the Presses.



I agree - Balas was 30 when she retired and was past her peak (having set her last WR at 25). The Press sisters were at their peak (having set several WRs in 1965) when they retired in 1966.

I was lucky enough to briefly meet Iolanda Balas in Budapest earlier this year. It was weird looking up to a 65+ year old woman (I'm no short-arse myself)... she must still be about 6'3" - 6'4"

I've found a pic on the web of how she looks today (and how she looked when I met her):

http://www.curierulnational.ro/foto/428_31592.jpg

[Per Andersen]

I agree with Ed that it is possible to Flop about 30cm higher than scissoring. But Balas did not use a regular Scissor style technique ( the one we see during warm-ups by many of the current jumpers)
She used an Eastern Cut-off type technique which is a good deal more efficient that the Scissor.
It is interesting that she had difficulties in learning the Straddle. The same was true for Fosbury and Debbie Brill but their solution was the Flop. In Balas's day that was not an option.

[Diego Sahagún]

Iolanda's style was not the usual scissors though she perfected it a lot. Some people do scissors very well and I don't think that Iolanda could jump more than 20 cm over her height using the fosbury flop, wich would be a WR actually

[john hunter]

Fern could you please tell me where you found that 1960 Olympic film as I have been looking for the video for some time without success.

Thank you,
John

[The Fern]

On Sky Sport down here in NZ they have been showing the official Olympic films for the past two weeks and like a dunce I did not tape them all. I am hoping for another go round in the coming two weeks. They have shown, 48, 56, 60, 64, 68, 72, 76, 80, 84, 88, 92, 96, and 00. I taped 88 and 92 the other night. I'll post if I get the rest.