Isinbayeva's soaring ambition keeps her on top of the world - Sport - Times Online
By David Powell
Russia’s extraordinary pole vaulter is at home with her fame
DOWN Soviet Street, parallel to the main road through Volgograd, lies the City School. On a rare day’s rest from training, Yelena Isinbayeva walks past one of 17 tank turrets marking the front line of Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 and continues through the open, buckled, iron gates. It is a Sunday morning and the school seems deserted.
Isinbayeva knocks on the door. No reply. She knocks again. Still no answer. She shouts her name and pauses for a few seconds. Now the door opens and the caretaker greets her warmly. This is Isinbayeva’s Alma Mater, an austere building where the visitor’s eye is deflected from the need for repairs by seemingly endless trails of hanging photographs.
As the school echoes to the sound of footsteps, we are walking along corridors of history. Former pupils here include Olympic champions from several decades and several sports, including weightlifting, gymnastics, swimming and Isinbayeva’s sport, athletics. Now she is among them, having taken the pole vault title in Athens last summer.
On one wall, the champions are linked under a common headline: Hearts That Were Dedicated To Sports. The school has changed little since the break-up of the Soviet Union and it still produces champions in an environment where the timetable accommodates sports training and education in equal measure. Pupils are selected for their sporting potential. “Normal people do not go to this school,” Isinbayeva says.
We have arrived at the school as the second stop in Isinbayeva’s guided tour of her home city. On our way to the first, our interpreter points to a place of interest. “To the left is the bank where Yelena deposits her money,” she says. Having set 15 world records, earning bonuses of up to $50,000 (about £29,000) a time, together with sponsorship, prize-money and appearance income, she is a frequent visitor.
Our first stop takes us to the museum dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Close by is a former flour mill, the only surviving building that has not been restored and which has been left in its bombed state as a reminder of the battle in which Soviet troops stopped the German advance in the east and turned the tide of the Second World War.
“This is a very important place for me,” Isinbayeva says. “I take power from here. When I was a schoolgirl I learnt the history of this place.” As we tour the outdoor display of aircraft and tanks, by a wonderful coincidence our path crosses with 200 Russian soldiers on a day visit from their base at Volzhski, 20 miles away. From student of history, Isinbayeva slips into full performing-artist mode.
It is for her sense of theatre, as much as for her vaulting skills, that athletics holds Isinbayeva in affection. She is the only woman athlete in the Carolina Klüft league of spontaneous celebration. There was the night at Crystal Palace last summer when she celebrated her seventh world record by jumping on a bus circling the track that had been reserved for the Great Britain Olympic team about to leave for Athens.
After world record No 9, in Brussels last September, Isinbayeva grabbed the microphone from the tenor in possession to give the 47,000 crowd a rousing rendition of the Russian national anthem. Even in competition she does drama to perfection, needing a third and final attempt to secure her Olympic gold with 4.80 metres before going on to break the world record with 4.91.
Back in Volgograd, Isinbayeva has a chunk of the Russian army surrounding her for autographs and, when enough is enough, she sends them back into line with her orders. “Salute for the camera,” she says, enjoying the moment.
Our tour takes us to the indoor track, which features athletics in one corner and ballroom dancing in another. Isinbayeva warms up around the perimeter, dodging the dancers who are doing the same in readiness for the Volgograd city championships.
On the floor is one of Isinbayeva’s new poles, complete with warning sticker. “Pole vaulting is a dangerous activity,” it reads. “Severe injury, paralysis and death have occurred.” For her, it holds no fears. As a former gymnast, she picked up easily the lessons in how to fall if the pole breaks.
While others break poles, Isinbayeva breaks records. “My goal is to beat (Sergey) Bubka — he has 35 world records,” she says, referring to the Ukrainian vaulter of the 1980s and 1990s. Aged 22, she is giving herself time. To that end, it would make sense to continue her usual practice of improving the indoor and outdoor record by one centimetre at a time.
However, in Madrid last Saturday, when she raised the world record to 4.95 metres, she increased the distance by two centimetres. Now, in an attempt to land the world’s first five-metre jump on British soil, organisers of the Norwich Union London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace tonight will pay an unspecified sum above the normal $50,000 for a record of that height.
Beyond five metres, what are Isinbayeva’s plans for the future? “I hope to continue for another 15 years, then I want another life,” she says. “Another 15 years?” I reply in disbelief. “But you will be 37 and you say you want four children.”
Like her ambitions for the season — world title, world records, more trips to the bank — she has it all worked out. “Yes,” she says. “I will be an old mother.”
Russia’s extraordinary pole vaulter is at home with her fame
DOWN Soviet Street, parallel to the main road through Volgograd, lies the City School. On a rare day’s rest from training, Yelena Isinbayeva walks past one of 17 tank turrets marking the front line of Soviet troops during the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 and continues through the open, buckled, iron gates. It is a Sunday morning and the school seems deserted.
Isinbayeva knocks on the door. No reply. She knocks again. Still no answer. She shouts her name and pauses for a few seconds. Now the door opens and the caretaker greets her warmly. This is Isinbayeva’s Alma Mater, an austere building where the visitor’s eye is deflected from the need for repairs by seemingly endless trails of hanging photographs.
As the school echoes to the sound of footsteps, we are walking along corridors of history. Former pupils here include Olympic champions from several decades and several sports, including weightlifting, gymnastics, swimming and Isinbayeva’s sport, athletics. Now she is among them, having taken the pole vault title in Athens last summer.
On one wall, the champions are linked under a common headline: Hearts That Were Dedicated To Sports. The school has changed little since the break-up of the Soviet Union and it still produces champions in an environment where the timetable accommodates sports training and education in equal measure. Pupils are selected for their sporting potential. “Normal people do not go to this school,” Isinbayeva says.
We have arrived at the school as the second stop in Isinbayeva’s guided tour of her home city. On our way to the first, our interpreter points to a place of interest. “To the left is the bank where Yelena deposits her money,” she says. Having set 15 world records, earning bonuses of up to $50,000 (about £29,000) a time, together with sponsorship, prize-money and appearance income, she is a frequent visitor.
Our first stop takes us to the museum dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd). Close by is a former flour mill, the only surviving building that has not been restored and which has been left in its bombed state as a reminder of the battle in which Soviet troops stopped the German advance in the east and turned the tide of the Second World War.
“This is a very important place for me,” Isinbayeva says. “I take power from here. When I was a schoolgirl I learnt the history of this place.” As we tour the outdoor display of aircraft and tanks, by a wonderful coincidence our path crosses with 200 Russian soldiers on a day visit from their base at Volzhski, 20 miles away. From student of history, Isinbayeva slips into full performing-artist mode.
It is for her sense of theatre, as much as for her vaulting skills, that athletics holds Isinbayeva in affection. She is the only woman athlete in the Carolina Klüft league of spontaneous celebration. There was the night at Crystal Palace last summer when she celebrated her seventh world record by jumping on a bus circling the track that had been reserved for the Great Britain Olympic team about to leave for Athens.
After world record No 9, in Brussels last September, Isinbayeva grabbed the microphone from the tenor in possession to give the 47,000 crowd a rousing rendition of the Russian national anthem. Even in competition she does drama to perfection, needing a third and final attempt to secure her Olympic gold with 4.80 metres before going on to break the world record with 4.91.
Back in Volgograd, Isinbayeva has a chunk of the Russian army surrounding her for autographs and, when enough is enough, she sends them back into line with her orders. “Salute for the camera,” she says, enjoying the moment.
Our tour takes us to the indoor track, which features athletics in one corner and ballroom dancing in another. Isinbayeva warms up around the perimeter, dodging the dancers who are doing the same in readiness for the Volgograd city championships.
On the floor is one of Isinbayeva’s new poles, complete with warning sticker. “Pole vaulting is a dangerous activity,” it reads. “Severe injury, paralysis and death have occurred.” For her, it holds no fears. As a former gymnast, she picked up easily the lessons in how to fall if the pole breaks.
While others break poles, Isinbayeva breaks records. “My goal is to beat (Sergey) Bubka — he has 35 world records,” she says, referring to the Ukrainian vaulter of the 1980s and 1990s. Aged 22, she is giving herself time. To that end, it would make sense to continue her usual practice of improving the indoor and outdoor record by one centimetre at a time.
However, in Madrid last Saturday, when she raised the world record to 4.95 metres, she increased the distance by two centimetres. Now, in an attempt to land the world’s first five-metre jump on British soil, organisers of the Norwich Union London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace tonight will pay an unspecified sum above the normal $50,000 for a record of that height.
Beyond five metres, what are Isinbayeva’s plans for the future? “I hope to continue for another 15 years, then I want another life,” she says. “Another 15 years?” I reply in disbelief. “But you will be 37 and you say you want four children.”
Like her ambitions for the season — world title, world records, more trips to the bank — she has it all worked out. “Yes,” she says. “I will be an old mother.”