( CNN ) -- Iolanda Balas ' dominance of the high jump transcended Olympic competition . Balas cleared 1.85m to win in Rome in 1960 . Although she won consecutive gold medals in Rome in 1960 and in Tokyo in 1964 , the Romanian 's achievements are perhaps better reflected in her 140 consecutive competitive victories in the event between 1957 and 1967 . During that period she also set 14 world records , literally raising the bar from 1.74 meters ( becoming in 1958 the first woman to clear six feet ( 1.83m ) to 1.91m . Such was Balas ' domination that at the time she set her final world record in 1961 no other woman had gone higher than 1.78m . Her career best 1.91m would stand until 1971 , by which point the sport had been revolutionized by Dick Fosbury 's famous `` flop '' at the 1968 Olympics . In fact , Balas had the perfect build for the pre-Fosbury era . Standing taller than six foot , her preternaturally long legs were ideally suited to the `` scissors '' style favored by the leading athletes of the day . `` My style is quite obsolete but it suits my body structure , '' she explained later . In Rome and Tokyo none of Balas ' opponents even got close . She won her first gold medal in 1960 by a margin of 14 centimeters with a leap of 1.85m -- one centimeter short of the world record she had set in Bucharest earlier in the year . Four years later she retained her title , clearing 1.90m to win by 10 centimeters . Balas continued to compete for three more years , battling with knee problems , until finally in 1967 she was beaten . It was her first defeat since finishing an inauspicious fifth on her Olympic debut in Melbourne in 1956 . She went on to become head of the Romanian Athletics Federation .
Olympic record : 14 gold medals . during that period she also set 2 world records raising the bar to 14 m . her long legs were ideally suited to the `` scissors '' style favored by athletes . High Jumper ; born 1971 , in Timosoara , Timosoara .