Elena Isinbaeva

Hobbies

Reading about Russian history and philosophy, listening to music, meeting friends and relatives, collecting models of dolphins. (IAAF, 07 Jul 2006; vk.com, 18 Jun 2012)

Occupation

Athlete

Education

Physical Education - Volgograd State Academy of Physical Education, Volgograd, RUS

Language(s) spoken

English, Italian, Russian

Club name

Dinamo, Russia

Coach

Yevgeny Trofimov (RUS) from 2011 (aipsmedia.com, 17 Apr 2012)

Debut

1998 for Russia (infosport.ru, 2006)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
She took up the sport when she was 15 years old. (iaaf.org, 05 May 2008)

Reason for taking up this sport
At the age of five she started artistic gymnastics at a sports school but in 1997 she had to leave the school. She did not give up sports and took up pole vaulting on the advice of her gymnastics coach Alexander Lisovoy. After just one year she won gold in the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow. (sport.ua, 07 Aug 2008)

Ambitions
She would like to win a third Laureus Award. (aipsmedia.com, 17 Apr 2012)

Most memorable sporting achievement
Her 2004 and 2008 Olympic gold medals. (european-athletics.org, 2011)

Superstitions / Rituals
She likes using different colours on her poles: she clears the starting height with pink, the winning height with blue and the world record height with the golden colour on her pole. (sport-express.ru, 10 Mar 2010)

Awards
In 2010 she was named female Athlete of the Decade by Track & Field News Magazine. (sport-express.ru, 31 Jan 2010)

In November 2008 she was named IAAF Athlete of the Year. (AP, 23 Nov 2008)

She shared the 2007 IAAF Golden League Jackpot of USD$1,000,000 with 400m runner Sanya Richards from the USA. (IAAF, 18 Dec 2007)

She was named 2007 and 2009 Sportswoman of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards. (Laureus Awards, 01 Jan 2011)

She was named 2004 and 2005 Female Athlete of the Year by the International Association of Athletics Federations. (IAAF, 10 Sep 2005)

She holds the national sports title of Honoured Master of Sport. (infosport.ru, 2006)

General
THE END IS NEAR
She said in 2012 that she would retire in two years. She said the she still enjoyed competing but training was taking a toll on her body. (thedailystar.net, 18 Apr 2012)

UNDEFEATED RUN
After remaining undefeated in nine successive major championships since winning gold at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, she failed to clear a height during the 2009 Berlin World Championships, finishing in 11th place. (smh.com.au, 18 Aug 2009)

WORLD RECORD STRATEGY
Like pole vault legend Sergey Bubka, she has generally gone about raising the world record by only a centimetre at a time. She receives $US50,000 for each new world mark she sets and has admitted that the money plays a role in her strategy but is not her only motive. "Money is always nice and the more the better, but it's not the reason why I compete and try to break records," she said. "I [choose] to do it step by step. This way you have some suspense and it's more exciting for the audience." (Reuters, 16 Sep 2004)

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE
Great Britain pole vault coach, Steve Rippon, said in 2005 that her technique is one of the best in the world, male or female. "She 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 and she runs extremely well." (bbc.co.uk, 12 Aug 2005)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008, Athens 2004