Yelena Isinbayeva Biography

Yelena Isinbayeva (Russian: Елена Исинбаева; born June 3, 1982 in Volgograd) is a Russian pole vaulter. She won the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal with a new World Record (then 4.91m), was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF twice (2004 and 2005) and has set numerous World Records. On June 22, 2005, she became the first female pole vaulter to clear 5-metres.

At the age of just 23 she's seen as the best female pole vaulter in history. She has already crowned herself 5-time major champion (olympic, world outdoor and indoor champion and european 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.

In 1999, Yelena improved on this at the World Youth Games when she cleared 4.10 m. to take her first gold medal.

The following year at the World Junior's she 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 United States took gold.

2001 saw another gold medal, this time at the European Junior Championships with a winning height of 4.40 m.

She continued to improve in this relatively new event and 2002 saw her clear 4.55 m. at the European Championships finishing 5 cm's. short of compatriot Svetlana Feofanova's gold medal winning jump.

2003 was another year of progression and saw Yelena win the European Under 23 Championships gold with 4.65 m. 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 Indoor 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.

On July 25 in Birmingham, England, Yelena 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, 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.

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 2cm 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 5.00m. 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 in her second attempt, and winning the competition.

She has got a bachelor's degree after graduating from the Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture, and is currently studying for her master's. In the Russian club competitions she represents the railroad military team, she is formally an officer in the Russian army, and on August 4, 2005 she was given military rank of senior lieutenant.

Her father, Gadzhi Gadzhiyevich Isinbayev, is a member of a small (70,000-people strong) ethnic group of Tabasarans who mostly live in Dagestan. Her mother is an ethnic Russian.