Elena Isinbaeva

Elena Isinbaeva is the best female pole vaulter in the history of women's athletics. She set 24 world records during 4 years and became the first female pole vaulter to get 5.00 metres. She was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005, and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus.

Elena Isinbaeva

Elena Isinbaeva was born on June 3, 1982 in Volgograd. From the age of 5 to 15, she trained as a gymnast but she had grown too tall for this kind of sport and had to leave it. Then she took up pole-vaulting and 6 months later won her first big victory during the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow. She won her first Olympics and set her first world record in 2004. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, on the last attempt, Isinbaeva improved om her previous gold medal by clearing 5.05m, her 24th world record.

I admire Elena Isinbaeva as a sportsman, as a woman and as a person. She is the most purposeful, strong and beautiful woman in Russian women's athletics.