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| Birth Name(s) : Yelena Isinbayeva |
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Full Yelena Isinbayeva Biography
Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva (Russian: Елена Гаджиевна Исинбаева; born June 3, 1982 (1982-06-03) (age 25) in Volgograd) is a Russian pole vaulter. She won the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal with a new World Record (then 4.91 m), was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF twice (2004 and 2005), and Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus, and has set 20 world records. On July 22, 2005, she became the first female pole vaulter to clear 5.00 metres.
At the age of 25 she is seen as the best female pole vaulter in history. She has already been a 7-time major champion (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion) and became the first woman to clear the metric barrier of 5.00 m.
In her first big competition, the 1998 World Junior Championships in Annecy, France, Yelena jumped 4.00 m but this left her 10 cm away from the medal placings.
2003 was another year of progression and saw Yelena win the European Under 23 Championships gold with 4.65 m (in Bydgoszcz). She went onto break the world record clearing 4.82 m on July 13 at a meeting in Gateshead, England which had made her the favourite to take gold at the World Championships the following month, but lack of technique saw her only win bronze with Feofanova taking gold and Becker, this time, pipping her for the silver.
2004 saw the women's pole vault really start to mature as an event and during a meeting at Donetsk, Ukraine, Yelena set a new indoor worlds best, with a height of 4.83 m only to see Feofanova increase this by a single centimetre the following week. The following month at the World's Indoor in March Yelena broke this with a gold medal winning jump of 4.86 m beating reigning indoor & outdoor champion Feofanova into bronze with reigning Olympic champion Dragila taking silver.
June 27 saw her return to Gateshead and once again the world record mark was improved to 4.87 m. Feofanova bounced back the following week to again break the record by a centimetre in Heraklion, Greece.
The pole vault was one of the most eagerly awaited events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece and although the competition did not reach the heights that were anticipated the rivalry between Yelena and Feofanova brought the event alive. With all of the other events finished the whole crowd were focused on the pole vault.
When Feofanova failed at 4.90 m the gold medal was Yelena's, and she then rubbed salt into her compatriots wound by attempting and clearing a new world record height of 4.91 m. She broke her own record later that year at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels with a 4.92m jump.
In July 2005, she broke the world record four times over three separate meetings. First in Lausanne, Switzerland, she added an extra centimetre to her own mark clearing 4.93 m. It was the 14th world record of Isinbayeva's career coming just three months after she broke her own indoor mark (4.89 m) in Lievin. Eleven days later, in Madrid, Spain, she added an additional 2 cm to clear 4.95 m. In Crystal Palace, London on July 22, after improving the record to 4.96 m, she raised the bar to 5.00 m. She then became the first woman pole vaulter to clear this metric barrier, achieving the mark with a single attempt. At the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, she once again broke her own world record, performing 5.01 m in her second attempt, and winning the competition.
On 28 August 2007 she repeated as world champion in Osaka at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics with a modest 4,80 m, then failing three times at setting a new world record at 5,02 m. Her competition did no better than 4,75 m (next 3 competitors).
Setting 20 world records, staying virtually unbeaten since the Olympic Games of 2004 (winning eight straight gold medals in indoor and outdoor championships) and being elected IAAF Female Athlete of the Year in 2004 and 2005, Isinbayeva has established herself as one of the most successful athletes of her generation.
Isinbayeva states that she has a boyfriend of three years, a fellow pole vaulter whose name she doesn't reveal. She also acknowledges that she does not get along with her compatriot and rival Svetlana Feofanova.
In an interview with The Guardian, Isinbayeva makes fun of the fact that female pole vaulters are seen as sex symbols for "male couch potatoes", as their usual muscular, but slim build makes them highly attractive. In addition, she acknowledges that her rags-to-riches career, combined with her work ethic and sex symbol status, makes her somewhat similar to Maria Sharapova: "We are quite similar. Being famous sportswomen is not easy and her parents also sacrificed everything for her. And, like (Sharopova), the idea of being glamorous is very important to me. I always want to look like a girl. I don't agree that you are either a sportswoman or a girl. It's important that there are women who bring glamour to sport." Isinbayeva feels she could peak at 5.15m, and plans to jump at least until the Olympics of 2012. , but since Moscow was elected hosts of the 2013 World Championships, she has suggested she may continue until then. |
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