World Top Sports Players: Yelena Isinbayeva biography & pics

Yelena Gadzhievna Isinbayeva (born 3 June 1982) is a Russian pole vaulter. She is twice an Olympic gold medalist (2004 and 2008), five-times a World Champion, and the current world record holder in the event. As a result of her accomplishments, she is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time.

Isinbayeva has been a major champion on nine occasions (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion). She was also the jackpot winner of the IAAF Golden League series in 2007 and 2009. After poor performances at world championships in 2009 and 2010, she took a year-long break from the sport.

She became the first woman to clear the five-metre barrier in 2005. Isinbayeva's current world records are 5.06 m outdoors, a record Isinbayeva set in Zurich in August 2009, and 5.00 m indoors, a record set in February 2009. The former was Isinbayeva's twenty-seventh pole vault world record.

Isinbayeva was named Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF in 2004, 2005 and 2008, and World Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus in 2007 and 2009. She was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports in 2009.