1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - High Jump (Women)

sport	athletics
discipline	high jump
gender	Women
Attendees	19 athletes from 12 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	1st December 1956
Medalists Mildred McDaniel ( USA )   Thelma Hopkins ( GBR ) Marija Pissarewa ( URS )     -

The women's high jump at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on December 1, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 19 athletes took part.

The American Mildred McDaniel became the Olympic champion with a new world record . In this competition there were two silver medals, one for the British Thelma Hopkins , another for Marija Pissarewa from the Soviet Union.

Swiss athletes did not take part. The German Inge Kilian reached the final and was 18th and last. The Austrian Reinelde Knapp also made it to the finals and finished twelfth there.

Existing records

World record	1.75 m	Iolanda Balaș ( Romania )	Bucharest , Romania	July 14, 1956
Olympic record	1.68 m	Alice Coachman ( USA )	London , UK	August 7, 1948
		Dorothy Tyler ( Great Britain )

Conducting the competition

The athletes started a qualifying round on December 1st. The required qualification height was 1.58 m. All qualified jumpers took part in the finals, which took place in the afternoon of the same day.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

December 1st, 10:00 a.m .: Qualification
December 1st, 1:50 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

qualification

Fifth place in the final: Romanian world record holder Iolanda Balaș

Date: December 1, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1.40 m	1.50 m	1.55 m	1.58 m	height	annotation
1	Iolanda Balaș	Romania	-	-	O	O	1.58 m
	Thelma Hopkins	Great Britain
	Gunhild Larking	Sweden	-	O	-	O	1.58 m
4th	Hermina Geyser	South African Union	-	O	O	O	1.58 m
	Reinelde Knapp	Austria
	Dorothy Tyler	Great Britain
7th	Mary Donaghy	New Zealand	O	O	O	O	1.58 m
	Michele Mason	Australia
	Mildred McDaniel	United States
	Jiřina Vobořilová	Czechoslovakia
	Maria Pissareva	Soviet Union
12	Audrey Banfield	Great Britain	-	O	xo	O	1.58 m
13	Olga Modrachová	Czechoslovakia	-	O	O	x o	1.58 m
14th	Valentina Ballod	Soviet Union	O	O	O	x o	1.58 m
	Carol Bernoth	Australia
16	Alice Whitty	Canada	O	xo	O	x o	1.58 m
17th	Inge Kilian	Germany	-	xo	O	xx o	1.58 m
18th	Janice Cooper	Australia	O	O	xxo	xx o	1.58 m
19th	Ann Marie Flynn	United States	O	x o	xxx		1.50 m

Final and final result

space	Surname	nation	1.40 m	1.50 m	1.55 m	1.60 m	1.64 m	1.67 m	1.70 m	1.76 m	1.80 m	Bottom line	annotation
1	Mildred McDaniel	United States	O	O	O	xo	O	O	xo	x o	xxx	1.76 m	WR
2	Thelma Hopkins	Great Britain	-	-	O	O	O	O	xxx			1.67 m
	Maria Pissareva	Soviet Union
4th	Gunhild Larking	Sweden	-	-	O	xxo	xo	O	xxx			1.67 m
5	Iolanda Balaș	Romania	-	-	O	O	O	x o	xxx			1.67 m
6th	Michele Mason	Australia	O	-	O	O	O	xx o	xxx			1.67 m
7th	Mary Donaghy	New Zealand	-	O	O	O	xo	xx o	xxx			1.67 m
8th	Hermina Geyser	South African Union	-	O	O	O	O	xxx				1.64 m
	Jiřina Vobořilová	Czechoslovakia
10	Olga Modrachová	Czechoslovakia	-	-	O	O	x o	xxx				1.64 m
11	Valentina Ballod	Soviet Union	-	-	O	O	xxx					1.60 m
12	Reinelde Knapp	Austria	-	O	O	O	xxx					1.60 m
	Dorothy Tyler	Great Britain
14th	Carol Bernoth	Australia	-	O	O	xx o	xxx					1.60 m
15th	Janice Cooper	Australia	-	-	O	xxx						1.55 m
16	Audrey Banfield	Great Britain	-	O	O	xxx						1.55 m
	Alice Whitty	Canada
18th	Inge Kilian	Germany	-	O	xx o	xxx						1.55 m

Date: December 1, 1956, 1:50 p.m.

The favorites were the Romanian world record holder Iolanda Balaș and the British European champion from 1954 , Thelma Hopkins. In the Olympic final, seven athletes were still in the race at 1.67 m: Balaș, Hopkins, Mildred McDaniel, Marija Pissarewa, Gunhild Larking, Michele Mason-Brown and Mary Donaghy. Only US jumper McDaniel jumped the next height of 1.70 m and was already an Olympic champion. She had the bar set at the new world record height of 1.76 m and managed to do so on the second attempt. Then she failed at 1.80 m. Thelma Hopkins and the Soviet jumper Marija Pissarewa took second place with 1.67 m and both got a silver medal.

For Iolanda Balaș, this was the last defeat until 1967.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 157f

Web links

• SportsReference high jump , accessed October 10, 2017
• Official report p. 354f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 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. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
3. ↑ Official report p. 354, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed October 10, 2017
5. ↑ High Jump Great Iolanda Balas — 154 Wins In A Row ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 10, 2017