1952 Summer Olympics / Athletics - High Jump (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	high jump
gender	Women
Attendees	17 athletes from 20 countries
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 27, 1952
Medalists Esther Brand ( RSA )   Sheila Lerwill ( GBR )   Alexandra Tschudina ( URS )

Bronze for Alexandra Tschudina from the Soviet Union (here at the long jump)

The women's high jump at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki was held on July 27, 1952. 17 athletes took part.

The South African Esther Brand became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the British Sheila Lerwill and Alexandra Tschudina from the Soviet Union.

Existing records

World record	1.72 m	Sheila Lerwill ( Great Britain )	London , UK	July 7, 1951
Olympic record	1.68 m	Alice Coachman ( USA )	London , UK	August 7, 1948
		Dorothy Tyler ( Great Britain )

Conducting the competition

The participants started the competition on July 27th at 3:20 pm. There was no qualifying round.

Course of the competition and final result

Date: July 27, 1952, 3:20 p.m.

The European champion and world record holder Sheila Lerwill was the favorite. Her strongest competitors were the South African Esther Brand and the Soviet Russian Alexandra Tschudina. These three then made the medals among themselves. They were the only ones who made the 1.61 m height. Tschudina took the lead at 1.63 m, she jumped the height in the first attempt, Brand in the second and Lerwill in the third. At 1.65 m, Tschudina failed and remained on the bronze rank. With her successful jump over this height in the second attempt, Brand now took the lead, but Lerwill stayed in the race and followed in the third attempt. Brand jumped the next height of 1.67 m in the third attempt, Lerwill tore the bar three times and won the silver medal. Brand had 1.69 mm applied, but failed at this height. She became Olympic champion with a skipped 1.67 m.

Esther Brand won the gold medal in athletics for South Africa. At the same time, it was the first gold medal given by a South African woman.

Alexandra Tschudina won the first medal for the Soviet Union in the women's high jump .

space	Surname	nation	1.35 m	1.40 m	1.45 m	1.50 m	1.55 m	1.58 m	1.61 m	1.63 m	1.65 m	1.67 m	1.69 m	result	annotation
1	Esther Brand	South African Union	-	O	O	O	O	O	O	xo	xo	xx o	xxx	1.67 m
2	Sheila Lerwill	Great Britain	-	O	-	xo	O	O	O	xxo	xx o	xxx		1.65 m
3	Alexandra Tschudina	Soviet Union	-	-	O	O	O	O	xo	O	xxx			1.63 m
4th	Thelma Hopkins	Great Britain	-	-	-	O	O	O	xxx					1.58 m
5	Olga Modrachová	Czechoslovakia	-	O	O	O	O	O	xxx					1.58 m
6th	Feodora Schenk	Austria	-	-	O	O	O	x o	xxx					1.58 m
7th	Nina Kosova	Soviet Union	-	-	O	O	O	xx o	xxx					1.58 m
	Dorothy Tyler	Great Britain
9	Gunhild Larking	Sweden	-	O	O	O	O	xxx						1.55 m
10	Alice Whitty	Canada	O	O	O	O	x o	xxx						1.55 m
11	Galina Ganeker	Soviet Union	-	-	O	xo	x o	xxx						1.55 m
12	Deyse de Castro	Brazil	-	-	-	O	xxx							1.50 m
13	Dawn Josephs	Canada	O	O	O	O	xxx							1.50 m
14th	Solveig Ericsson	Sweden	-	O	xo	O	xxx							1.50 m
15th	Seija Pöntinen	Finland	-	O	O	xx o	xxx							1.50 m
16	Sisko Heikkilä	Finland	O	O	xxx									1.40 m
17th	Tamar Metal	Israel	O	x o	xxx									1.40 m

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 106

Web links

• SportsReference high jump , accessed September 29, 2017
• Official report p. 342, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 29, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 644 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 266, engl. (PDF)
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)