Yelena Isinbaeva (born June 3, 1982)
In her first big competition, the 1998 World Junior Championships in Annecy, France, Yelena jumped 4,00 m but this left her 10 cm. away from the medal placings.
In 1999, Yelena improved on this at the World Youth Games when she cleared 4,10 m to take her first gold medal.
The following year at the World Junior's she again took first place clearing 4,20 m ahead of German Annika Becker. The same year the women's pole vault made its debut as an Olympic event in Sydney, Australia where Stacy Dragila of United States took gold.
2001 saw another gold medal, this time at the European Junior Championships with a winning height of 4,40 m
She continued to improve in this relatively new event and 2002 saw her clear 4,55 m at the European Championships finishing 5 cm's. short of compatriot Svetlana Feofanova's gold medal winning jump. 2003 was another year of progression and saw Yelena win the European Under 23 Championships gold with 4,65 m
She went on to break the world record clearing 4,82 m on July 13 at a meeting in Gateshead, England which had made her the favourite to take gold at the World Indoor Championships the following month, but lack of technique saw her only win bronze with Feofanova taking gold and Becker, this time, pipping her for the silver.
2004 saw the women's pole vault really start to mature as an event and during a meeting at Donetsk, Ukraine, Yelena set a new indoor worlds best, with a height of 4,83 m only to see Feofanova increase this by a single centimetre the following week. The following month at the World's Indoor in March, Yelena broke this with a gold medal winning jump of 4,86 m beating reigning indoor & outdoor champion Feofanova into bronze with reigning Olympic champion Dragila taking silver.
