Which athlete became the first woman to clear two metres in the high jump?

Rosemarie Ackermann became the first woman to clear two metres in the high jump.

The East German athlete jumped 2.00 m in Berlin on August 26, 1977. This was a landmark in women’s athletics because it established the two-metre barrier as a height that could be surpassed in competition.

Ackermann won Olympic gold at Montreal in 1976 and became world record holder several times during her career. She was also one of the leading early adopters of the Fosbury Flop, the technique that had revolutionized high jumping after Dick Fosbury’s Olympic victory in 1968.

Iolanda Balaș was an earlier dominant champion and record holder, but she did not clear two metres. The two-metre milestone therefore belongs to Ackermann, not to the first generation of women’s high-jump stars.