Russia’s Isinbaeva Named Academy’s Female Athlete of the Year
12 Feb 2010DAPHNE, Ala. — Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbaeva sets the bar higher and higher in her sport, seemingly every time she makes an attempt. A worldwide audience noticed, and recognized her extraordinary feats.
Isinbaeva emerged from a field of a dozen strong candidates to win the United States Sports Academy’s 2009 Female Athlete of the Year Award. The competition attracted more than 1.7 million votes. The websites of NBC Sports and USA Today helped distribute the ballot to a worldwide audience. The international influence of the ballot was reflected in the final results, as the top three finishers for males and females were from countries other than the United States.
Finishing second in the women’s competition was Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa, the LPGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a fourth consecutive season. Kenyan distance runner Linet Masai was third after winning the 10,000 meters at the world track and field championships and leading her team to first in the World Cross Country Championships.
Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines was Male Athlete of the Year by virtue of becoming the first boxer in the history of the sport to win titles in seven different weight classes. He beat Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, who won his record 15th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon after completing the Grand Slam earlier in the season at the French Open. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who lowered his world-record times in the 100 (to 9.58) and 200 (19.19) with lightning-fast runs at the world championships, took third.
Isinbaeva, 27, says goodbye to 2009 with the outdoor (5.06 meters) and indoor (5.0 meters) world records in her possession. She set the outdoor record in Zurich on 28 August, and established the indoor mark at Donetsk on 15 February. She has now broken an astonishing 27 world records in her career. This year has also seen Isinbaeva win the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year and the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports.
