The women's
high jump
The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
event at the 1932 Olympic Games took place August 7.
When world record holder and returning silver medalist
Lien Gisolf
Carolina Anna "Lien" Gisolf (13 July 1910 – 30 May 1993) was a Dutch high jumper. She won a silver medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics and finished fourth in 1932.
Biography
Her talent was discovered during school competition in 1926, when it ...
failed at 1.60, the medalists were determined.
Eva Dawes made the next height but was unable to make 1.62m leaving her with the bronze medal. The two American jumpers
Jean Shiley
Jean Shiley Newhouse (November 20, 1911 – March 11, 1998) was an American high jumper. She was born Jean Shiley in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Havertown, a Philadelphia suburb, where she joined the team at Haverford High ...
and
Babe Didrikson
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the ...
jumped evenly through the rest of the competition. Both cleared a new world record of on their first attempt and then missed at . A jump-off was ordered at and both Americans had successful clearances on their first attempt. But after Didrikson’s jump, the officials convened and ruled that she had jumped head-first, which was then illegal, and was termed diving. This gave the gold medal to Jean Shiley. Didrikson later noted that she had jumped in the same style throughout the competition.
Results
Final standings
Key: WR = World record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics - Women's high jump
Women's high jump
High jump at the Olympics
1932 in women's athletics
Ath