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| Full name | Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Russia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 June 1982 Volgograd, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
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| Height | 5 ft 8.5 in (1.74 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 65 kg (140 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Russia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Pole vault | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World finals | Outdoor: 2003, 2005, 2007 Indoor: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 |
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| Regional finals | Outdoor: 2002, 2006 Indoor: 2005 |
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| Olympic finals | 2004, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest world ranking | 1st (2005–2009) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | outdoor: 5.06m (2009, WR) indoor: 5.00m (2009, WR) |
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Medal record
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| Updated on February 15, 2009. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva (Russian: Елена Гаджиевна Исинбаева, Elena Gadžievna Isinbaeva) (born 3 June 1982) is a Russian pole vaulter. She is twice an Olympic gold medalist (2004 and 2008), five-times a World Champion, and the current world record holder in the event. As a result of her accomplishments, she is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time.[1][2]
Isinbayeva has been a major champion on nine occasions (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion). She was also the jackpot winner of the IAAF Golden League series in 2007 and 2009. After poor performances at world championships in 2009 and 2010, she took a year-long break from the sport.
She became the first woman to clear the five-metre barrier in 2005. Isinbayeva's current world records are 5.06 m outdoors, a record Isinbayeva set in Zurich in August 2009, and 5.00 m indoors, a record set in February 2009. The former was Isinbayeva's twenty-seventh pole vault world record.
Isinbayeva was named Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus in 2007 and 2009. She was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 2009.
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From the age of 5 to 15, Isinbayeva trained as a gymnast in her hometown of Volgograd. She ultimately left the sport because as she grew she was considered too tall to be competitive in gymnastics, ultimately attaining a height of 1.74 m (5' 8½").
Six months after having taken up pole-vaulting she won her first major victory at age 16 during the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow, Russia with a height of 4.00 m. It was her third athletic competition.[3] She jumped the same height at the 1998 World Junior Championships in Annecy, France, but this left her 10 cm away from the medal placings.
In 1999, Isinbayeva improved on this height at the World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland when she cleared 4.10 m to take her second gold medal.
At the 2000 World Juniors Isinbayeva again took first place clearing 4.20 m ahead of German Annika Becker. The same year the women's pole vault made its debut as an Olympic event in Sydney, Australia where Stacy Dragila of the United States took gold. In the same event Isinbayeva did not make it out of the qualifying round.
She won another gold medal in 2001, this time at the European Junior Championships with a winning height of 4.40 m.
Isinbayeva continued to improve and 2002 saw her clear 4.55 m at the European Championships, where she gained her first senior championship medal (silver), finishing 5 cm short of her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova.
2003 was another year of progression and saw Isinbayeva win the European Under 23 Championships gold with 4.65 m (in Bydgoszcz). On July 13, 2003, just about a month after her 21st birthday, Isinbayeva set her first World Record at a meeting in Gateshead, England with a height of 4.82 m, which had made her the favourite to take gold at the World Championships the following month. She ended up winning the bronze medal with Feofanova taking gold and Becker the silver.
At a meeting at Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbayeva set a new indoor world record, with a height of 4.83 m only to see Feofanova increase this by two centimetres the following week. The following month at the World's Indoor in March Isinbayeva broke Feofanova's record 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. The IAAF considered all three records to be over-all (outdoor) records, hence the indoor and outdoor records now stood at 4.86 m
27 June saw Isinbayeva return to Gateshead and improved the world record to 4.87 m. Feofanova responded the following week by breaking the record by a centimetre in Heraklion, Greece.
On 25 July in Birmingham, England, Isinbayeva reclaimed the record jumping 4.89 m and five days later in Crystal Palace, London, added a further centimetre to the record.
The pole vault was one of the most eagerly awaited events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. When Feofanova failed at 4.90 m the gold medal was Isinbayeva's, and she subsequently set 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 4.92 m jump. It was her eight world record of the season, which along with her Olympic & World Indoor title helped her gain her first World Athlete of the Year award.
At the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain Isinbayeva won gold with a new indoor world record of 4.90 m. In July 2005, Isinbayeva 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 22 July, after improving the record to 4.96 m, she raised the bar to 5.00 m. She then became the first woman in history to clear the once mythical five-metre barrier in pole vaulting, achieving the monumental mark with a single attempt.
After the women's pole vault final at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland was delayed due to extremely bad weather conditions, Isinbayeva once again broke her own world record, performing 5.01 m in her second attempt, and winning the competition with a 41 cm margin of victory, which was the greatest margin ever obtained in any World or Olympic competition for the event.[4] This was already the eighteenth world record in the career of the then 23-year-old Isinbayeva and her successful season was crowned with her second consecutive World Athlete of the Year award.
At an indoor meeting on 12 February in Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbayeva set a new indoor world record. She cleared 4.91 m. In March she successfully defended her World Indoor title in front of a homeland crowd in Moscow, Russia. During the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg she won the gold medal with a CR of 4.80 metres. This was the only gold medal missing from her collection until that time. In September she won the World Cup, representing Russia, in Athens.
Isinbayeva was crowned Laureus World Sports Woman of the Year for the 2006 season.
On 10 February 2007 in Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbayeva broke the world indoor pole vault record again, by clearing 4.93 metres. It was Isinbayeva's 20th world record.[5]
On 28 August 2007 Isinbayeva repeated as world champion in Osaka at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics with a 4.80 m performance, then failed three times at setting a new world record at 5.02 m. Her competition did no better than 4.75 m.
In 2007 she also won the IAAF Golden League Jackpot (which she shared with Sanya Richards) after having won all 2007 IAAF Golden League meetings. Isinbayeva was unbeaten in the 2007 season and won 18 out of 18 competitions.[6]
During the indoor 2008 season, Isinbayeva set her twenty-first world record, clearing 4.95 metres on 16 February 2008 in Donetsk, Ukraine. A few weeks later, in Valencia, Spain, Isinbayeva won the World Indoor Championships over Jennifer Stuczynski. It was Isinbayeva's third consecutive World Indoor title.[7]
On 11 July, at her first outdoor competition of the season, Rome's Golden Gala, Isinbayeva broke her own world record, clearing 5.03 metres. This was her first world record outdoors since the 2005 World Championships. Isinbayeva stated that she had tried 5.02 metres so many times unsuccessfully that her coach told her to change something and so she attempted 5.03 metres.[8] This record came just as people began to speculate her fall from the top of pole vaulting, as American Jennifer Stuczynski cleared 4.92 metres at the American Olympic Trials. Isinbayeva stated that this motivated her to maintain her reputation as the world's greatest female pole vaulter.[9] A few weeks later, at the Aviva London Grand Prix, Isinbayeva and Stuczynski competed together for the first time of the outdoor season. Isinbayeva won the competition, with Stuczynski finishing second. Both attempted a new world record of 5.04 metres. Isinbayeva was tantalizingly close on her final attempt, with the bar falling only after Isinbayeva had landed on the mat.[10]
She successfully cleared that height on 29 July, in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, her twenty-third world record.[11]
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing on 18 August, Isinbayeva needed two vaults to prolong her Olympic title reign and went on to finish the competition with 5.05m, a world record at the time, her 24th world record.[12]
On 23 November in Monaco, she was selected World Athlete of the Year by the IAAF for the third time in her career, along with Jamaican male sprinter Usain Bolt.
Isinbayeva started the 2009 season by becoming the first woman to vault over 5 metres indoors. She first raised her world indoor mark with a vault of 4.97 m, then raised the bar to 5.00 m and cleared that height as well. The two marks were set at the Pole Vault Stars indoor meet, on 15 February, in Donetsk, Ukraine. It was the sixth consecutive year she had set an indoor world record in this meet.[13] She received the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year in recognition of her achievements – it was also the fifth time she had been nominated for the award in as many years.[14]
At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, Isinbayeva lost her second competition of the year after failing to achieve a successful vault. The world champion was Anna Rogowska who also beat her in the London Grand Prix in May.[15] However, Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own women's pole vault world record at the Weltklasse Golden League meeting by clearing 5.06 m. On September 2 she was given the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Sports.
She hoped to put her World Championships no-mark performance behind her by aiming for a world indoor record at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships.[16] The Russian cleared her opening height of 4.60 m at the championships in Doha, but she faltered at 4.75 m and she ended up in fourth place and outside of the medals for a second consecutive time.[17] Following another disappointment at a major championships, she decided to take time out from the sport to recuperate, saying: "A break from competing is absolutely necessary for me. After more than eight years of very hard training and competing at the highest levels both indoors and outdoors each year I need to step back in order for my body to properly recover".[18]
She missed the opportunity to defend her title at the 2010 European Championships and she was succeeded by her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova, while Fabiana Murer went on to claim the inaugurual IAAF Diamond League pole vault series. Isinbayeva continued to train with Vitaliy Petrov during her time out, however, although did not appear in competition until the start of the 2011 indoor season.[19] The Russian Winter meeting in February 2011 was the venue for her comeback and she demonstrated her resurgence of form with a first time clearance of 4.81 m, comfortably defeating Feofanava.[20]
On March 2011, Isinbayeva left her coach Vitaly Petrov and returned to her former mentor Yevgeny Trofimov,[21] who had coached her since the age of 15 and until 2005. During the 2011 summer season she participated in only a few competitions and on 29 July she won the Diamond League meeting of Stockholm with a season best of 4.76 m. However, in the World Championships in Daegu she ended up again outside of the medals, taking the 6th place with 4.65 m.
Setting 27 world records (15 outdoor and 12 indoor), staying virtually unbeaten between 2004 and 2009 (winning nine straight gold medals in indoor and outdoor championships) and being elected IAAF World Athlete of the Year in 2004, 2005 and 2008, Isinbayeva has established herself as one of the most successful athletes of her generation.
In August 2005, top UK pole vault coach Steve Rippon said to the BBC that "she [Isinbayeva] is one of the few female pole vaulters I look at and think her technique is as good as the men's. In fact, the second part of her jump is probably better than any male pole vaulter currently competing. She has a fantastic technique, she's quite tall (almost 5ft 9in) and she runs extremely well."[22]
These statements are confirmed by close observation of her jumps; in detail, Isinbayeva's high level of body control (courtesy of her gymnastics background) especially pays off in the so-called "L-Phase", where it is vital to use the pole's rebound to convert horizontal speed into height. Common mistakes are getting rebounded away in an angle (rather than vertically up) or inability to keep the limbs stiff, both resulting in loss of vertical speed and therefore less height. In Isinbayeva's case, her L-Phase is exemplary.
Her father, Gadzhi Gadzhiyevich Isinbayev, is a plumber and a member of a small (130,000-people strong) ethnic group of Tabasarans who mostly live in Dagestan. Her mother, a shop assistant, is Russian. Isinbayeva also has a sister named Inna. Isinbayeva came from humble beginnings and remembers that her parents had to make many financial sacrifices in her early career.[23][24][25]
She has both a Bachelor's and Master's Degree after graduating from the Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture. Currently she is continuing her post-graduate studies there and also studying at the Donetsk National Technical University.[26]
In the Russian club competitions she represents the railroad military team; she is formally an officer in the Russian army, and on 4 August 2005 she was given military rank of senior lieutenant[27] before being promoted to captain in August 2008.[28]
She features in Toshiba ads promoting their entire product line in Russia. She also appears in a Lady's Speed Stick advertisement in Russia.
On 2 December 2010 she held a passionate speech before the FIFA delegates in Zürich. Later on that occasion it was announced that Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Yelena Isinbayeva is now a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.[29]
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Yelena Isinbayeva has set 27 world records so far. She has broken the outdoor world record 15 times and the indoor world record 12 times.
| Performance | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 4.82 m | Gateshead, England | 14 July 2003 |
| 4.87 m | Gateshead, England | 27 June 2004 |
| 4.89 m | Birmingham, England | 25 July 2004 |
| 4.90 m | London, England | 30 July 2004 |
| 4.91 m | Athens, Greece | 24 August 2004 |
| 4.92 m | Brussels, Belgium | 3 September 2004 |
| 4.93 m | Lausanne, Switzerland | 5 July 2005 |
| 4.95 m | Madrid, Spain | 16 July 2005 |
| 4.96 m | London, England | 22 July 2005 |
| 5.00 m | London, England | 22 July 2005 |
| 5.01 m | Helsinki, Finland | 12 August 2005 |
| 5.03 m | Rome, Italy | 11 July 2008 |
| 5.04 m | Monaco | 29 July 2008 |
| 5.05 m | Beijing, China | 18 August 2008 |
| 5.06 m | Zurich, Switzerland | 28 August 2009 |
| Performance | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 4.81 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 15 February 2004 |
| 4.83 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 15 February 2004 |
| 4.86 m | Budapest, Hungary | 6 March 2004 |
| 4.87 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 12 February 2005 |
| 4.88 m | Birmingham, England | 15 February 2005 |
| 4.89 m | Lievin, France | 18 February 2005 |
| 4.90 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 26 February 2005 |
| 4.91 m | Madrid, Spain | 6 March 2005 |
| 4.93 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 12 February 2006 |
| 4.95 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 10 February 2007 |
| 4.97 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 16 February 2008 |
| 5.00 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 15 February 2009 |
(Records in bold are current ones.)
| Record Category | Performance | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Youth Record | 4.10 m | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 1999, July 18 |
| World Junior Championship | 4.20 m | Santiago, Chile | 2000, October 8 |
| European Junior Championship | 4.40 m | Grosseto, Italy | 2001, July 21 |
| World Junior Record | 4.46 m | Berlin, Germany | 2001, August 2 |
| World Junior Record | 4.47 m | Budapest, Hungary | 2001, February 10 |
| European U-23 Championship | 4.65 m | Bydgoszcz, Poland | 2003, July 19 |
| Olympic Record | 4.91 m | Athens, Greece | 2004, August 24 |
| Olympic Record | 5.05 m | Beijing, China | 2008, August 18 |
| World Indoor Championships | 4.86 m | Budapest, Hungary | 2004, March 6 |
| World Championships | 5.01 m | Helsinki, Finland | 2005, August 12 |
| European Indoor Championships | 4.90 m | Madrid, Spain | 2005, March 6 |
| European Championships | 4.80 m | Göteborg, Sweden | 2006, August 12 |
| World Record (Indoor) | 5.00 m | Donetsk, Ukraine | 2009, February 15 |
| World Record (Outdoor) | 5.06 m | Zurich, Switzerland | 2009, August 28 |
| IAAF Golden League | 5.06 m | Zurich, Switzerland | 2009, August 28 |
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stacy Dragila Svetlana Feofanova Svetlana Feofanova |
Women's Pole Vault World Record Holder July 13, 2003 – February 20, 2004 March 6, 2004 – July 4, 2004 July 25, 2004 – |
Succeeded by Svetlana Feofanova Svetlana Feofanova Incumbent |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by Hestrie Cloete |
Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year 2004–2005 |
Succeeded by Sanya Richards |
| Preceded by Kelly Holmes Blanka Vlašić |
Women's European Athlete of the Year 2005 2008 |
Succeeded by Carolina Klüft Marta Domínguez |
| Preceded by Janica Kostelić Justine Henin |
World Sportswoman of the Year 2007 2009 |
Succeeded by Justine Henin Serena Williams |
| Preceded by Rafael Nadal |
Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 2009 |
Succeeded by Spain national football team |
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