Thelma Hopkins

Thelma Elizabeth Hopkins (16 March 1936 – 10 January 2025) was a Northern Irish athlete who competed in the high jump and the long jump. She won the high jump silver medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was European champion in 1954.

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

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

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

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. Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters called Hopkins her "inspiration". Coached by Franz Stampfl,

Hopkins completed another double of national championships when winning the 80 metres hurdles and high jump at the 1957 WAAA Championships.

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.

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

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.