Medal record
File:Iolanda Balas.jpg Iolanda Balaş
Women’s Athletics
Competitor for  Romania
Olympic Games
Gold	1960 Rome	High Jump
Gold	1964 Tokyo	High Jump
European Championships
Gold	1958 Stockholm	High Jump
Gold	1962 Belgrade	High Jump
Silver	1954 Berne	High Jump
Universiade
Gold	1959 Torino	High Jump
Gold	1961 Sofia	High Jump

Iolanda Balaş (later Söter, Hungarian: Jolán Balázs, born 12 December 1936) is a Romanian former athlete (Romanian father and Hungarian mother) and an Olympic champion in high-jump, considered one of the greatest high jumpers ever.

She was born in Timişoara.

After finishing fifth in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, she won two Olympic gold medals at Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. Between 1957 and 1967, Balaş won 140 consecutive competitions, improving the world record 14 times, from 1.74 m to 1.91 m. 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.

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Records
Preceded by Thelma Hopkins	Women's High Jump World Record Holder 14 July 1956 – 1 December 1956	Succeeded by Mildred McDaniel
Records
Preceded by Mildred McDaniel	Women's High Jump World Record Holder 13 October 1957 – 17 November 1957	Succeeded by Cheng Feng-jung
Records
Preceded by Cheng Feng-jung	Women's High Jump World Record Holder 7 June 1958 – 4 September 1971	Succeeded by Ilona Gusenbauer