Isinbayeva, Yelena

Yelena Isinbayeva, also spelled Elena Isinbaeva, (born June 3, 1982, Volgograd, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now in Russia]), Russian pole-vaulter who achieved numerous world records and became the first woman to clear the 5-metre (16-foot 4.75-inch) mark in the sport’s history.

Isinbayeva was enrolled by her parents in gymnastics school at age 4, but a growth spurt when she was 15 suddenly made her too tall to compete effectively in the sport; she eventually reached a height of 1.73 metres (5 feet 8 inches). Pole-vault coach Yevgeny Trofimov invited her to try that sport, and the next season, in July 1998, she vaulted 4 metres (13 feet 1.5 inches). She won the 1999 world youth title and the 2000 world junior title, and in 2001 she broke both indoor and outdoor junior world records.

Isinbayeva defeated Russian rival Svetlana Feofanova, the reigning world champion, for the first time in March 2003. That summer she surpassed American Stacy Dragila’s world record with a 4.82-metre (15-foot 9.75-inch) vault and then triumphed in two more major athletics meets over fields that included Feofanova and Dragila. Isinbayeva finished third at the 2003 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world championships, but by the 2004 world indoor championships, she had taken charge, winning the title with an indoor world record. Although Feofanova claimed one more record in July 2004, Isinbayeva produced a string of five world records that summer, including the 4.91-metre (16-foot 1.5-inch) clearance that won her the Olympic gold medal in Athens.

Although pole-vaulters usually followed the practice of raising the world record 1 cm (0.4 inch) at a time—and only once per competition—in order to maximize performance bonuses from sponsors, Isinbayeva approached the bar differently at the London Grand Prix in July 2005. She raised the record first to 4.96 metres (16 feet 3.25 inches) and then to 5 metres.

Isinbayeva, who developed a reputation for calm confidence and for jumping her highest at important competitions, was dubbed “Bubka in a skirt” by Russian sportswriters who deemed her prolific record-setting reminiscent of former men’s world-record holder Sergey Bubka. After winning her first outdoor world championship title—and raising the record yet again, to 5.01 metres (16 feet 5.25 inches) in August 2005—she avoided serious talk about ultimate height goals but said that she hoped to claim 36 world records in her career—one more than Bubka’s total. In the fall of 2005, Isinbayeva dropped Trofimov as her coach and announced plans to train at Bubka’s vault centre in Donetsk, Ukraine.

Isinbayeva’s success continued into 2006 with first-place finishes in the world indoor championships, IAAF World Athletics Final, and World Cup; she repeated those winning performances in 2007 and 2008. Isinbayeva continued to breach the 5-metre mark in competition, and at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games she cleared 5.05 metres (16.6 feet), winning gold and breaking her 24th world record. At a Golden League meet the following year, she raised the world record yet again, to 5.06 metres (16 feet 7.25 inches).

However, she subsequently struggled at a series of events, and, after failing to win a medal at the 2010 world indoor championships, she took a year off from the sport. In 2011 Isinbayeva reteamed with coach Trofimov, and the following year she set an outdoor record by clearing 5.01 metres (16 feet 5.25 inches); it was her 28th record. After winning at the 2012 world indoor championships, she entered the London Olympics as a favourite but captured only a bronze medal. She rebounded to win a gold at the world championships in 2013. Isinbayeva then took time off to give birth to a daughter. Upon her return to competition, she managed to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. However, she was unable to participate in the Games because, in June of that year, the IAAF banned the Russian athletics team from all international competition after the discovery of a wide-ranging state-sponsored doping program. In August Isinbayeva retired.

Later in 2016 Isinbayeva was named chair of Russia’s anti-doping agency. The move surprised some, given her vocal criticism of the doping suspension, which she claimed was motivated by anti-Russian sentiment. In 2017 she left the post, reportedly at the request of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which claimed that she was hindering Russia’s attempts to comply with the requirements set forth by that agency.