Thelma Hopkins (athlete)

Hopkins was born in Kingston upon Hull but grew up in Belfast as a child; she had one older sister.^[1]

Hopkins finished third behind Dorothy Tyler in the high jump event at the 1952 WAAA Championships.^{[2][page needed]}

At both the 1953 WAAA Championships and 1954 WAAA Championships she was defeated by Sheila Lerwill in the high jump competition.^[3]

In the 1954 Commonwealth Games she won a gold medal for Northern Ireland in high jump.^[4] Later that year, she got the gold medal in high jump for Great Britain at the 1954 European Athletics Championships.^[5]

Hopkins became a double British champion in 1955, winning the national high jump title and national long jump title at the 1955 WAAA Championships.^{[6][page needed]}

On 5 May 1956, Hopkins set a new world high jump record with a leap of 1.74 metres in Belfast, erasing the mark of 1.73 metres set by Aleksandra Chudina of the USSR on 22 May 1954. Her record was broken on 14 July 1956 in Bucharest by Iolanda Balaș of Romania.^[7] Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters called Hopkins her "inspiration".^[1] Coached by Franz Stampfl,^[1] she competed for Great Britain in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia in high jump , where she jointly won the silver medal with Mariya Pisareva.^[8]

Hopkins completed another double of national championships when winning the 80 metres hurdles and high jump at the 1957 WAAA Championships.^{[9][page needed][10]}

As well as athletics she excelled at hockey where she was a regular choice for the Ireland women's national field hockey team, playing at forward and winning 40 caps.^[5] She also represented Ireland as an international squash player.^[5]

She was one of many signatories in a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.^{[11][12][page needed]}

Hopkins moved to Canada,^[5] where she died on 10 January 2025, at the age of 88 in Edmonton.^[13]

Her achievement in breaking the world record is commemorated by a plaque erected by Belfast City Council in 2006 in Cherryvale Playing Fields, South Belfast.^[1]

• Thelma Hopkins at World Athletics
• Thelma Hopkins at Olympics.com
• Thelma Hopkins at Team GB
• Thelma Hopkins at Olympedia
• Thelma Hopkins at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)
• Thelma Hopkins at InterSportStats

Records
Preceded by Sheila Lerwill	Women's High Jump British Record Holder 5 May 1956 – 15 August 1964	Succeeded by Frances Slaap