Yelena Isinbaeva
Russian Pole Vault Legend Yelena Isinbaeva on Her Journey to World Records and Olympic Golds
Freo de Janeiro Ep. 2
Listen to this Episode:
Background:Yelena Isinbaeva is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time. She is the current female world record holder and an Olympic gold medallist in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. She has won numerous world championships, indoor and outdoor.
Yelena won the prestigious Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award in 2007 and 2009.
Beyond Athletics, Yelena is a respected leader and has established a charity, Yelena Isinbaeva Foundation, delivering projects for disadvantaged children in Russia through sports related initiatives.
We talk about her ascent in Athletics after developing in Gymnastics, tips for people visiting Russia, public speaking, sports projects in her home town and much more. I hope you enjoy it all as much as I did!
Background:Yelena Isinbaeva is widely considered the greatest female pole-vaulter of all time. She is the current female world record holder and an Olympic gold medallist in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. She has won numerous world championships, indoor and outdoor.
Yelena won the prestigious Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award in 2007 and 2009.
Beyond Athletics, Yelena is a respected leader and has established a charity, Yelena Isinbaeva Foundation, delivering projects for disadvantaged children in Russia through sports related initiatives.
We talk about her ascent in Athletics after developing in Gymnastics, tips for people visiting Russia, public speaking, sports projects in her home town and much more. I hope you enjoy it all as much as I did!
Linkworthy items from this Episode:
- Follow Yelena Isinbaeva -> Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
- Yelena’s hometown Volgograd
- Her awesome public speaking skills on display at the Kremlin
- Russian writer Pikul
Full Transcript
This was transcribed and therefore might contain a few typos. With some long episodes, it's difficult to catch some minor errors. Enjoy!
Abid Imam: Привет Yelena, how are you going?I am extremely excited to have you on as massive sports fan, athletics and gymnastics. Also, to hear your amazing story of how you become one of the greatest pole-vaulters of all-time.
Yelena Isinbaeva: I am fine thanks Abid. Ok I will share my experience [laughs]
Abid Imam: Firstly, can you please tell me about where you grew up?
Yelena Isinbaeva: So, I grew up in Volgograd, a very historical city. This city is not just famous because of the World War, but also the sports history. In my region we have 17 Olympic champions for all time. No other region in Russia has such a big number of Olympic champions. For one region, for one city! And it’s very large, it’s about 72 km length of our city beside the River Volga. There are about 2.4 million citizens and we a very special people there because we always grow up with the spirit. In Stalingrad (former name of Volgograd), there was an important period during the second war, so we always keep the spirit inside of us and it helps us to reach our goals in life.
Abid Imam: Who helped inspire you to fall in love with sport?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well, my parents made me love sport. For me and my sister from age five they put us in Artistic Gymnastics and I was there for ten years. My mother and father were busy with work because they were trying to give us the best life they could. Instead of leaving us at home alone, they decided it was better to spend our free time in sport. After ten years, of course I was in love with sport. When the Gymnastics time was over for me, I was happy to be transferred from Gymnastics to Pole Vault. I am even happier that I succeeded in my new sport.
Abid Imam: You did Gymnastics for over ten years which is incredible and of course it is such a great sport for teaching fundamental movement skills. How did it benefit you later in your career and how much did you love Gymnastics too?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Of course, of course, I love Gymnastics. I dreamed to be an Olympic champion in Gymnastics. I was dreaming to represent my country in high level competition, but it was difficult because I was too tall. When I practised I was trying to be the best, but other girls were a bit better [laughs] but when I switched from Gymnastics to Pole Vault of course it helped me a lot. It gave me an advantage because I could control my body, especially the second part of the jump, it’s 100% Gymnastics. I saw there were some pole vaulters who were former gymnasts. I felt the advantage. In pole vault it’s just one event, in gymnastics there were four, so it felt a bit easier too.
Abid Imam: What was your favourite apparatus in Gymnastics?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Floor, because I love dance and I love to express myself. I could do it only when I am on the floor with the music. Where you dance and while doing some acrobatic elements, that was my favourite one.
Abid Imam: I am heading to Russia soon and I am really excited what are places that you recommend people must see when they go to Russia?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well, of course so first I will say a bit about Russia internally. Russia is a multinational country with particularities especially because in one country there are people of different nationalities and religions living together. Russia is the biggest country in the world, it takes ten hours to fly directly from one edge, Kaliningrad to another edge, Vladivostok, just imagine it! [laughter] and it’s still one country.
We are famous for our traditions which are passed from one generation to another. We have an enormous number of museums, monuments devoted to great people from Russia and Russian ballet is considered as the best in the world. We have a rich history of literature and we are just an amazing, interesting and attractive country for tourism. For those tourists who would love to visit Volgograd city, I would recommend they go to the Mamayev Kurgan monument. It’s a very impressive monument, taller than the Statue of Liberty in the United States. Also, the Museum Stalingrad, then we have the New Museum of Russian History, we just built it, it’s very impressive and an interactive museum. And of course, now we have our new modern stadium which is called Volgograd Arena where we will hold the World Cup matches. It’s all about touristic places, and also, we have a very, very, very new big park which is in front of the stadium. Everyone can see that Volgograd is developing and they will feel this atmosphere and spirit of victory, I am sure wherever they go in our city.
Abid Imam: What are your favourite cities in the rest of Russia because it’s such a big country?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Last year I went to Kaliningrad and I was very impressed with this because we are one country, but the cities are so different. I have been to Vladivostok and it’s completely different, the people, the buildings, the spirit of the city is also different, so those two I like the most. Of course, Moscow, St Petersburg, they are my favourite.
Abid Imam: Tell us about the Tabasaran people, where are they from and how have you engaged with that part of your heritage?
Yelena Isinbaeva: You know this Tabasaran is a very, very special nation, it’s very small and from the mountains. Of course, it’s not true but when we were kids with my sister, we said that our blood is blue [laughs] because the Tabasaran nation is like royalty. My father is from Caucasus Tabasaran and my mother is a 100% Russian, she’s Kazachka from Don, which is also a very special nation. They gave me the best they can. My character, emotions, the skills to achieve the goals. I always go further, and I never stop until I achieve my goals.
Abid Imam: Did you feel nervous moving from Gymnastics to Pole Vault?
Yelena Isinbaeva: No I was not nervous. When I was fifteen when I realised my Gymnastics time was over. I was in love with sport and didn't want to stop. I was just happy that I was given another chance to realise myself in another sport. So, I switched without any problems because I understand my life in sport was able to continue. It was proved, in 6 months I won the first World Youth Games in Moscow. It was like an Olympic Games for kids under 16. After my first victory I understood that now I found my place under the sun and I will do my best here to be the best in the world. I am just thankful to Gymnastics, for all these ten years I spent. It gave the opportunity to show up myself in the pole vault. So, no regrets, just happiness.
Abid Imam: The name Yevgeniy Trofimov, how important was this coach to you as you moved into Pole Vault?
Yelena Isinbaeva: The coach was very important for me, because pole vault is a very difficult technical event, so without the coach, I would say it’s impossible to achieve anything. Me and my coach, we were just like father and daughter. We understand each other sometimes without words. He created a special technique of the jump that helped me to jump higher than the other girls. There were other coaches before teaching girls to jump as a man. My coach said you are not a man and you won’t be able to jump like a man, so you should jump as a woman. He started to improve and create our technique, we could see from the results that it works well. Now I see girls jump completely different than it was before. Of course, it makes me very happy and I could see my coach’s and my impact for pole vault in the world.
Abid Imam: I can tell he is a very innovative coach!Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, an innovative coach because he also tried to create something new. He read a lot, he liked to create some tests. For example, he said ‘Yelena, if you would like to jump 5.15m, you should run 30 metres in 2.5 seconds, you must do long jump 6.30 metres.’ I sometimes ask, I can’t find the connection between 5.15m and all these factors. ‘Oh, don’t worry, this is not your problem, you just need to do this and I calculate and I will put all things together’. I was always impressed from where he took this knowledge, how it was possible.
Abid Imam: He sounds like an amazing man!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, he’s amazing man, amazing coach and at the same time which is very important he is an amazing theologist. In every difficult moment and every important point during the competition he was always able to find the right words that helped me mobilise myself and win. So, he was for me the perfect person to be my coach, to be my friend, theologist, with whom I would say I spent more time with than my parents.
Abid Imam: How important was self-talk in your career? Did you have any practices and routines?
Yelena Isinbaeva: You know self-talk, actually everyone talks to themselves, even you I guess [laughs]. Because I realise that it’s important to hear yourself because you never lie to yourself, and it comes somehow. I don’t know how I always try to find some words to help me mobilise and words to motivate for competition, for life for things that I must do and especially for the pole vault. I found some sentences that helped me mobilise myself before the jump and it works so I would say there is nothing special. Every person can do something for themselves and find something that can motivate and give some extra emotions which is necessary in the big day, in that hour, in this place.
Abid Imam: What would be the jump that you are most proud of?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well I have many important jumps, every record is important, but especially the first one, 4,83m which I did in 2003. No one expected that Yelena Isinbaeva could beat the world record of the favourite Stacey Dragila, but I did it. At that time the TV and the photo camera men had left the stadium and I did the world record! Can you imagine that, the meet organiser was in shock because there was no material. There were some pictures from private cameras that filmed my jump. So, the next day I woke up famous because my world record just flew around the world and now everyone starts to know who is Yelena Isinbaeva, from where she’s from and how it happened. Yeah of course, it was my entrance to the world. It was a remarkable moment.
Of course, my 5 metres which I did in London in 2005. I expected the 5 metres from myself, but I was very worried some girls could do it before I could become the first woman in the world and I was always rushing to my coach ‘ok, ok I have to do it first’. He says, ‘don’t worry, don’t worry it’s not that easy’. I was afraid someone could do it faster than me. So, my coach said, ‘calm down, don’t worry, there is no danger’. It’s also interesting because when I did 5 metres I became completely relaxed because I was the first woman in the world to do 5 metres. This was also a remarkable moment.
My first Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens where I won with another world record. I have many special moments and jumps. I must say that all my career, every competition is special because every time I overcame some difficulties, injuries, weather conditions or something else because victories are not given for nothing you know. You’re always stepping over something, then you achieve your goal.Abid Imam: On the 28 August 2009 in Zurich you have the world record which is the highest any female has ever jumped in history, 5.06m. What do you remember from that night and what did you have for breakfast? [laughs]
Yelena Isinbaeva: I remember very clearly this competition because I went there after my difficulty in Berlin. My first loss in a major competition. Before Berlin I was very nervous, I was feeling that something was going wrong. Maybe there was too much focus for the competition so there was no rest and I was too concentrated, so it made me a little stiff in the competition. So, I lost, I completely relaxed then I said ok I will go to Zurich and just enjoy myself, I will enjoy the competition, I will enjoy everything that will go on there. The worst things have happened already, so no worries at all [laughs] and when I started the competition I felt that I had an amazing shape. I said, ‘today will be something great’. In that time, I was completely relaxed and confident that bad things could not happen again. When I did 5.06m, I just was screaming, I was running around the stadium, running to my coach, we celebrated. Then I said ok, I should have done it in Berlin. Ok Berlin nothing happened, but I did it here and I proved that Isinbaeva is the best. That was very important for me.
Abid Imam: For the listeners/readers, how do you deconstruct a pole-vault jump? What are the different phases, from the run-up to the landing? So, we can understand pole vault a little bit better.
Yelena Isinbaeva: So, my run-up was 35 metres. Imagine yourself that you stand on the mark of 35m and you just run with a pole that is 4.65m length. You hold it on the top of the pole. With your run it’s difficult because you can feel even light wind which is blowing from one side to another.Then you do your run-up and you accelerate your speed just at the end with every step. From the take-off spot, you must take off your body with the pole, you must bend the pole with your weight. When the pole will catapult you up, you will go directly up, not back or not too much forward. So, from the position when your head is down and legs are up, you must try to fly over the bar and then this time you must turn your body from the back position to the opposite position and jump over the bar with your stomach already facing down. I don’t know if you understand me? [laughs] But then you fall down onto the pit and you are happy if you win! But it’s very difficult actually! Abid Imam: And that’s when you celebrate and run around!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, yes!
Abid Imam: I am really interested of the practical exercise you were doing. What was your favourite tip for flexibility and to gain strength?
Yelena Isinbaeva: No, I don’t have a favourite exercise, because all the exercises are necessary, even if you don’t want to do it, you must prevent injury.
Abid Imam: Yes, I understand
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, it’s not like you come to training and you enjoy [laughs] Just now when I do fitness, now I enjoy. But in that time, it was duty.
Abid Imam: What fitness do you do now, out of choice?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well now I start to run a little bit because after second baby delivery I want to get the muscle back, so I like to run and my goal is to run like 10km in less than one hour [laughs] and I do basic stretching. Without stretching, there’s no training. Abid Imam: One thing I noticed Yelena is you’re an amazing public speaker. Whether it comes to speaking for the FIFA World Cup Russia bid in 2010 or after the Rio Olympic decision next to Vladimir Putin. How did you become such an amazing public speaker, was it natural or something you practised?
Yelena Isinbaeva: That starts naturally because I read a lot and I love to speak with people and I like to deliver some important messages to the public. When I was doing interviews, big conferences or speeches after a victory at the stadium those were my first steps to become a speaker. Now that I am retired, I’ll start more speaker work this September. So, I will start in Russia but then I would like to become a worldwide speaker. I will speak about motivation, physical things, about theological things in sport and how to combine maternity and sport. Many things to discuss actually.
Thanks, it’s very nice to hear that you also think that I’m a good speaker [laughs] it just makes me confident that I made a right choice to become a professional speaker [laughs]
Abid Imam: Yes, please do, I think that you have an amazing story to tell. You said you love books; do you have any books that you like to give as gifts to anybody?
Yelena Isinbaeva: I read the biographies of famous people, from Russia. I love Pikul, I don’t know if you know this Russian writer, Pikul. There is written a story about how from nobody one man became an admiral. It was written about all of his ways and how he lost everything and that he died a very poor person. It shows me that when you are at the top, never forget where you come from and who were the close people who helped you become a great person. So, you must never forget about your past life. You know these kinds of books I read. The real stories of the real people which will help me in the future. Abid Imam: You haven’t forgotten where you’ve grown up because I have seen your foundation, the Isinbaeva Fund. Can you tell us about some of the success stories or what that fund has been able to achieve?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, with pleasure because my foundation is my first baby I would say. I established my charity foundation in 2013, but I started my charity work in 2007. My wish was to change the outlooks for orphan children, the children who stay without parental care to help them to change their life for better through sport because my story is just a role model I would say.
This year my charity foundation will be five years, but we have already built 14 sports playgrounds in the orphan houses and the rehabilitation centres. We provide sports festivals for the orphan kids which is called ‘Every child deserves a pedestal’. Hundreds of orphan kids participate for the two-day festival. The first day is a sport competition, the second day is a cultural program, so we teach and explain about the history of sport. I invite Olympic champions to share their experience with the kids. So, the kids can speak with the legends. I truly believe that it helps them to be confident in themselves and it will help them to somehow overcome their difficulties. Already now from the beginning their lives are not as mine with parents and now I try to help them to understand that they could do everything that they want, and we are here to help them and to give them my shoulders and my hands.
I also provide the athletics competition for kids under 14/15 years. It’s called the Yelena Isinbaeva Cup. It’s a regular athletics competition, of course pole-vault is the main event in this competition. We also do a colour run every year. This is also a charity project and funds raised from this go towards building the sports playgrounds for the centres where they need it. We also buy the sport equipment for those that need it at rehabilitation centres and orphan houses.
This year we have also provided an urban sports festival. We put together workouts, parkour and street ball. I know that those three sports are very easy, everyone can do it without even equipment, just outside on the streets, with the ball for the street ball. This year we will provide this in Volgograd. We expect that there will be about 500 to 800 participants. What is important is that kids from orphan houses older than 16 years old will participate.
Abid Imam: How do you say parkour in Russian?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Parkour [Паркур, in the Russian alphabet with a rolled R].You know parkour is like a, you know when especially boys, but now girls start to do it. When they run in the city and they jump over everything, like, I don’t know how to say it, but do you understand?
Abid Imam: I coach some of that here in Australia! [excitedly]
Yelena Isinbaeva: Ahh really? [excitedly too!]
Abid Imam: Yes, I have been coaching athletics and gymnastics here for some years. It’s part of one of my jobs here. I work in development in Australia, so I am so interested in what you are saying.
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, you know we have many young people doing parkour and workouts here. Of course, we don’t have facilities for this and I try to improve it because it’s very simple but it’s very necessary because everyone can do sport. So, yes, I am happy to hear it! So maybe once I will invite you from Australia to my city to teach our children.
Abid Imam: Absolutely love to, because I will be there in July so maybe it’s possible. [laughs]
I just have a couple more questions. I want to hear about a story I saw where you were having lunch and Roman Abramovich was on the table and he heard your home city Volgograd, where you were training had facilities that needed maintenance help. He heard about that and said he could help you out. Can you tell us about that?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, of course. It was in 2010 after the FIFA bid, when we finished we went to lunch all together. I was sitting next to him and he was asking, you know Yelena, ‘how are you? how’s everything? how are things in Volgograd? how are the sport facilities?’ da, da, da. I said everything is fine, but our indoor hall is actually very old. The facilities have not been improved a little bit, that we don’t have money and it’s very cold during the winter. We begin to get injuries and I am afraid because we need to compete.
I started to explain to him and answer his questions and then he said ‘you know what? I can help you!’. I said, ‘ok but how?’. The biggest problem was the windows in the indoor hall were very old and when it was minus 10 outside, indoors it was maybe zero. But you don’t know because you are in Australia! (laughs) It’s very cold and difficult to warm up your body as you’re always feeling cold. It’s a big risk to get injured. He said ‘Ok, I will help you, I will change these windows in the old hall. So, like this you will feel comfortable’.
Of course, my first impression was, great, super! But then I was afraid he could forget. So, the next day I said, ‘Mr Abramovich I am sorry but wouldn’t you forget about this?’ And he just looked at me and said ‘Yelena, I never forget anything!’ [laughs].After his word I was confident he would help me, and he helped. He gave us money and we changed the windows so now during the winter when it’s minus 10 or 20 outside, inside the hall its about 20-25 degrees and now everyone is complaining that it’s so hot [laughs].
Abid Imam: Now it’s like Australia inside!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, it’s a funny story.
Abid Imam: The whole world is really looking forward to the World Cup now. I am so excited to visit Russia to see what it’s like and to see the people. 10 years ago, you were standing there in the FIFA headquarters and you were talking to the FIFA President. You were representing Russia with your speech. Apparently, the night before you didn’t know you would be doing the speech [laughs] could you tell us about what that was like for you?
Yelena Isinbaeva: I was surprised [laughs]. I was very honoured about this and when they gave me the opportunity to speak I was like ’Wow’ [laughs] such a crazy thing. How could I express? It was something that was comparable to a competition. Because you represent your country, whole, huge Russia. Yes, it was a very big honour but of course a responsibility because there was no chance for me to make a mistake, but yeah, I was very happy. The important thing was that I didn’t know my speech was live. I thought that it would be recorded somewhere and then they will show it. Then when I finished everyone said ‘Yelena, did you know that it was live?’. I said whoa! But it was a good thing I didn’t know from the beginning because maybe it could not happen because I was nervous.
Abid Imam: What opportunity does this World Cup provide now for Russia to really showcase itself and what legacy do you think can come out from it?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well of course for our country the World Cup is an opportunity to present a new, modern and developing Russia to the whole world. No doubt the World Cup will push the development of economics, business, international relationships, infrastructure and tourism in our country. The World Cup will have a positive impact on the development of football and sport in general in our country.
Its legacy will become a centre of attraction for tourists and even athletes. Now we will have the stadiums, hotels, the infrastructure to help not just football but any other sports events at international level. So, we will get many positive things from this World Cup especially in my city. Now we have a new airport, we have new travel stations, we have new bus stations, we have many 5-star hotels. We have a train that delivers you directly from the airport to the stadium. If there was no World Cup, we would never have it. So now our city has just changed completely to the better side. We are just thankful and happy about everything. Abid Imam: Yelena, to finish how is your family life going? You now have children, people listening to this interview could hear a lot of background fun happening. How is family life for you now finally?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Finally, yes, I have my family, my husband. He’s a very good person, he loves me a lot. I’m very happy that he’s also a former athlete, two metres tall [laughs]. I am just a small girl when we are together. Of course, now I have my beautiful daughter and now three-month boy. So, I am just happy to have my family which will help me to improve myself in the future to realise projects and now to achieve my goals in life, which is connected to them now. I retired from sport, but I will stay close to sport because it gave me everything, now I like to give back to sport everything that I can.So, I will take this opportunity to thank all fans that I have in Australia for their support, for their belief in myself. I am really thankful, and I hope that for some of them my sport history could help them to achieve their goals in life, even if it’s not in sport [laughs]. So, thanks a lot.
Abid Imam: Yelena it’s been absolutely fun and great to talk to you. How can people help your foundation? Is there anywhere you want to direct people to on the internet to help you with what you do
Yelena Isinbaeva: Thank you, we are planning to sell some products with the label of my foundation. You will love that my label is a dolphin. I don’t know if you know about my passion and love for dolphins?
Abid Imam: We have many here!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Oh, if you could send something special to me I would be happy! I would say that this is from Australia! Yes, we will sell some products with the dolphin and all proceeds collected from sales will go to our foundation and it will help us to build a new playground and to buy new equipment or the kids. It will be coming soon. If someone wants to donate money, it’s also appreciated because we have many projects which need to be realised this year and next year. I would be happy if someone likes to help.
Abid Imam: Yelena, thank you very much. Hopefully we meet sometime, all the best and I hope we hear from you a lot in your projects. So, thank you very much.
Yelena Isinbaeva: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure for me too. Have a wonderful day or night [laughs].
Yelena Isinbaeva: I am fine thanks Abid. Ok I will share my experience [laughs]
Abid Imam: Firstly, can you please tell me about where you grew up?
Yelena Isinbaeva: So, I grew up in Volgograd, a very historical city. This city is not just famous because of the World War, but also the sports history. In my region we have 17 Olympic champions for all time. No other region in Russia has such a big number of Olympic champions. For one region, for one city! And it’s very large, it’s about 72 km length of our city beside the River Volga. There are about 2.4 million citizens and we a very special people there because we always grow up with the spirit. In Stalingrad (former name of Volgograd), there was an important period during the second war, so we always keep the spirit inside of us and it helps us to reach our goals in life.
Abid Imam: Who helped inspire you to fall in love with sport?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well, my parents made me love sport. For me and my sister from age five they put us in Artistic Gymnastics and I was there for ten years. My mother and father were busy with work because they were trying to give us the best life they could. Instead of leaving us at home alone, they decided it was better to spend our free time in sport. After ten years, of course I was in love with sport. When the Gymnastics time was over for me, I was happy to be transferred from Gymnastics to Pole Vault. I am even happier that I succeeded in my new sport.
Abid Imam: You did Gymnastics for over ten years which is incredible and of course it is such a great sport for teaching fundamental movement skills. How did it benefit you later in your career and how much did you love Gymnastics too?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Of course, of course, I love Gymnastics. I dreamed to be an Olympic champion in Gymnastics. I was dreaming to represent my country in high level competition, but it was difficult because I was too tall. When I practised I was trying to be the best, but other girls were a bit better [laughs] but when I switched from Gymnastics to Pole Vault of course it helped me a lot. It gave me an advantage because I could control my body, especially the second part of the jump, it’s 100% Gymnastics. I saw there were some pole vaulters who were former gymnasts. I felt the advantage. In pole vault it’s just one event, in gymnastics there were four, so it felt a bit easier too.
Abid Imam: What was your favourite apparatus in Gymnastics?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Floor, because I love dance and I love to express myself. I could do it only when I am on the floor with the music. Where you dance and while doing some acrobatic elements, that was my favourite one.
Abid Imam: I am heading to Russia soon and I am really excited what are places that you recommend people must see when they go to Russia?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well, of course so first I will say a bit about Russia internally. Russia is a multinational country with particularities especially because in one country there are people of different nationalities and religions living together. Russia is the biggest country in the world, it takes ten hours to fly directly from one edge, Kaliningrad to another edge, Vladivostok, just imagine it! [laughter] and it’s still one country.
We are famous for our traditions which are passed from one generation to another. We have an enormous number of museums, monuments devoted to great people from Russia and Russian ballet is considered as the best in the world. We have a rich history of literature and we are just an amazing, interesting and attractive country for tourism. For those tourists who would love to visit Volgograd city, I would recommend they go to the Mamayev Kurgan monument. It’s a very impressive monument, taller than the Statue of Liberty in the United States. Also, the Museum Stalingrad, then we have the New Museum of Russian History, we just built it, it’s very impressive and an interactive museum. And of course, now we have our new modern stadium which is called Volgograd Arena where we will hold the World Cup matches. It’s all about touristic places, and also, we have a very, very, very new big park which is in front of the stadium. Everyone can see that Volgograd is developing and they will feel this atmosphere and spirit of victory, I am sure wherever they go in our city.
Abid Imam: What are your favourite cities in the rest of Russia because it’s such a big country?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Last year I went to Kaliningrad and I was very impressed with this because we are one country, but the cities are so different. I have been to Vladivostok and it’s completely different, the people, the buildings, the spirit of the city is also different, so those two I like the most. Of course, Moscow, St Petersburg, they are my favourite.
Abid Imam: Tell us about the Tabasaran people, where are they from and how have you engaged with that part of your heritage?
Yelena Isinbaeva: You know this Tabasaran is a very, very special nation, it’s very small and from the mountains. Of course, it’s not true but when we were kids with my sister, we said that our blood is blue [laughs] because the Tabasaran nation is like royalty. My father is from Caucasus Tabasaran and my mother is a 100% Russian, she’s Kazachka from Don, which is also a very special nation. They gave me the best they can. My character, emotions, the skills to achieve the goals. I always go further, and I never stop until I achieve my goals.
Abid Imam: Did you feel nervous moving from Gymnastics to Pole Vault?
Yelena Isinbaeva: No I was not nervous. When I was fifteen when I realised my Gymnastics time was over. I was in love with sport and didn't want to stop. I was just happy that I was given another chance to realise myself in another sport. So, I switched without any problems because I understand my life in sport was able to continue. It was proved, in 6 months I won the first World Youth Games in Moscow. It was like an Olympic Games for kids under 16. After my first victory I understood that now I found my place under the sun and I will do my best here to be the best in the world. I am just thankful to Gymnastics, for all these ten years I spent. It gave the opportunity to show up myself in the pole vault. So, no regrets, just happiness.
Abid Imam: The name Yevgeniy Trofimov, how important was this coach to you as you moved into Pole Vault?
Yelena Isinbaeva: The coach was very important for me, because pole vault is a very difficult technical event, so without the coach, I would say it’s impossible to achieve anything. Me and my coach, we were just like father and daughter. We understand each other sometimes without words. He created a special technique of the jump that helped me to jump higher than the other girls. There were other coaches before teaching girls to jump as a man. My coach said you are not a man and you won’t be able to jump like a man, so you should jump as a woman. He started to improve and create our technique, we could see from the results that it works well. Now I see girls jump completely different than it was before. Of course, it makes me very happy and I could see my coach’s and my impact for pole vault in the world.
Abid Imam: I can tell he is a very innovative coach!Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, an innovative coach because he also tried to create something new. He read a lot, he liked to create some tests. For example, he said ‘Yelena, if you would like to jump 5.15m, you should run 30 metres in 2.5 seconds, you must do long jump 6.30 metres.’ I sometimes ask, I can’t find the connection between 5.15m and all these factors. ‘Oh, don’t worry, this is not your problem, you just need to do this and I calculate and I will put all things together’. I was always impressed from where he took this knowledge, how it was possible.
Abid Imam: He sounds like an amazing man!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, he’s amazing man, amazing coach and at the same time which is very important he is an amazing theologist. In every difficult moment and every important point during the competition he was always able to find the right words that helped me mobilise myself and win. So, he was for me the perfect person to be my coach, to be my friend, theologist, with whom I would say I spent more time with than my parents.
Abid Imam: How important was self-talk in your career? Did you have any practices and routines?
Yelena Isinbaeva: You know self-talk, actually everyone talks to themselves, even you I guess [laughs]. Because I realise that it’s important to hear yourself because you never lie to yourself, and it comes somehow. I don’t know how I always try to find some words to help me mobilise and words to motivate for competition, for life for things that I must do and especially for the pole vault. I found some sentences that helped me mobilise myself before the jump and it works so I would say there is nothing special. Every person can do something for themselves and find something that can motivate and give some extra emotions which is necessary in the big day, in that hour, in this place.
Abid Imam: What would be the jump that you are most proud of?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well I have many important jumps, every record is important, but especially the first one, 4,83m which I did in 2003. No one expected that Yelena Isinbaeva could beat the world record of the favourite Stacey Dragila, but I did it. At that time the TV and the photo camera men had left the stadium and I did the world record! Can you imagine that, the meet organiser was in shock because there was no material. There were some pictures from private cameras that filmed my jump. So, the next day I woke up famous because my world record just flew around the world and now everyone starts to know who is Yelena Isinbaeva, from where she’s from and how it happened. Yeah of course, it was my entrance to the world. It was a remarkable moment.
Of course, my 5 metres which I did in London in 2005. I expected the 5 metres from myself, but I was very worried some girls could do it before I could become the first woman in the world and I was always rushing to my coach ‘ok, ok I have to do it first’. He says, ‘don’t worry, don’t worry it’s not that easy’. I was afraid someone could do it faster than me. So, my coach said, ‘calm down, don’t worry, there is no danger’. It’s also interesting because when I did 5 metres I became completely relaxed because I was the first woman in the world to do 5 metres. This was also a remarkable moment.
My first Olympic Games in 2004 in Athens where I won with another world record. I have many special moments and jumps. I must say that all my career, every competition is special because every time I overcame some difficulties, injuries, weather conditions or something else because victories are not given for nothing you know. You’re always stepping over something, then you achieve your goal.Abid Imam: On the 28 August 2009 in Zurich you have the world record which is the highest any female has ever jumped in history, 5.06m. What do you remember from that night and what did you have for breakfast? [laughs]
Yelena Isinbaeva: I remember very clearly this competition because I went there after my difficulty in Berlin. My first loss in a major competition. Before Berlin I was very nervous, I was feeling that something was going wrong. Maybe there was too much focus for the competition so there was no rest and I was too concentrated, so it made me a little stiff in the competition. So, I lost, I completely relaxed then I said ok I will go to Zurich and just enjoy myself, I will enjoy the competition, I will enjoy everything that will go on there. The worst things have happened already, so no worries at all [laughs] and when I started the competition I felt that I had an amazing shape. I said, ‘today will be something great’. In that time, I was completely relaxed and confident that bad things could not happen again. When I did 5.06m, I just was screaming, I was running around the stadium, running to my coach, we celebrated. Then I said ok, I should have done it in Berlin. Ok Berlin nothing happened, but I did it here and I proved that Isinbaeva is the best. That was very important for me.
Abid Imam: For the listeners/readers, how do you deconstruct a pole-vault jump? What are the different phases, from the run-up to the landing? So, we can understand pole vault a little bit better.
Yelena Isinbaeva: So, my run-up was 35 metres. Imagine yourself that you stand on the mark of 35m and you just run with a pole that is 4.65m length. You hold it on the top of the pole. With your run it’s difficult because you can feel even light wind which is blowing from one side to another.Then you do your run-up and you accelerate your speed just at the end with every step. From the take-off spot, you must take off your body with the pole, you must bend the pole with your weight. When the pole will catapult you up, you will go directly up, not back or not too much forward. So, from the position when your head is down and legs are up, you must try to fly over the bar and then this time you must turn your body from the back position to the opposite position and jump over the bar with your stomach already facing down. I don’t know if you understand me? [laughs] But then you fall down onto the pit and you are happy if you win! But it’s very difficult actually! Abid Imam: And that’s when you celebrate and run around!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, yes!
Abid Imam: I am really interested of the practical exercise you were doing. What was your favourite tip for flexibility and to gain strength?
Yelena Isinbaeva: No, I don’t have a favourite exercise, because all the exercises are necessary, even if you don’t want to do it, you must prevent injury.
Abid Imam: Yes, I understand
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, it’s not like you come to training and you enjoy [laughs] Just now when I do fitness, now I enjoy. But in that time, it was duty.
Abid Imam: What fitness do you do now, out of choice?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well now I start to run a little bit because after second baby delivery I want to get the muscle back, so I like to run and my goal is to run like 10km in less than one hour [laughs] and I do basic stretching. Without stretching, there’s no training. Abid Imam: One thing I noticed Yelena is you’re an amazing public speaker. Whether it comes to speaking for the FIFA World Cup Russia bid in 2010 or after the Rio Olympic decision next to Vladimir Putin. How did you become such an amazing public speaker, was it natural or something you practised?
Yelena Isinbaeva: That starts naturally because I read a lot and I love to speak with people and I like to deliver some important messages to the public. When I was doing interviews, big conferences or speeches after a victory at the stadium those were my first steps to become a speaker. Now that I am retired, I’ll start more speaker work this September. So, I will start in Russia but then I would like to become a worldwide speaker. I will speak about motivation, physical things, about theological things in sport and how to combine maternity and sport. Many things to discuss actually.
Thanks, it’s very nice to hear that you also think that I’m a good speaker [laughs] it just makes me confident that I made a right choice to become a professional speaker [laughs]
Abid Imam: Yes, please do, I think that you have an amazing story to tell. You said you love books; do you have any books that you like to give as gifts to anybody?
Yelena Isinbaeva: I read the biographies of famous people, from Russia. I love Pikul, I don’t know if you know this Russian writer, Pikul. There is written a story about how from nobody one man became an admiral. It was written about all of his ways and how he lost everything and that he died a very poor person. It shows me that when you are at the top, never forget where you come from and who were the close people who helped you become a great person. So, you must never forget about your past life. You know these kinds of books I read. The real stories of the real people which will help me in the future. Abid Imam: You haven’t forgotten where you’ve grown up because I have seen your foundation, the Isinbaeva Fund. Can you tell us about some of the success stories or what that fund has been able to achieve?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, with pleasure because my foundation is my first baby I would say. I established my charity foundation in 2013, but I started my charity work in 2007. My wish was to change the outlooks for orphan children, the children who stay without parental care to help them to change their life for better through sport because my story is just a role model I would say.
This year my charity foundation will be five years, but we have already built 14 sports playgrounds in the orphan houses and the rehabilitation centres. We provide sports festivals for the orphan kids which is called ‘Every child deserves a pedestal’. Hundreds of orphan kids participate for the two-day festival. The first day is a sport competition, the second day is a cultural program, so we teach and explain about the history of sport. I invite Olympic champions to share their experience with the kids. So, the kids can speak with the legends. I truly believe that it helps them to be confident in themselves and it will help them to somehow overcome their difficulties. Already now from the beginning their lives are not as mine with parents and now I try to help them to understand that they could do everything that they want, and we are here to help them and to give them my shoulders and my hands.
I also provide the athletics competition for kids under 14/15 years. It’s called the Yelena Isinbaeva Cup. It’s a regular athletics competition, of course pole-vault is the main event in this competition. We also do a colour run every year. This is also a charity project and funds raised from this go towards building the sports playgrounds for the centres where they need it. We also buy the sport equipment for those that need it at rehabilitation centres and orphan houses.
This year we have also provided an urban sports festival. We put together workouts, parkour and street ball. I know that those three sports are very easy, everyone can do it without even equipment, just outside on the streets, with the ball for the street ball. This year we will provide this in Volgograd. We expect that there will be about 500 to 800 participants. What is important is that kids from orphan houses older than 16 years old will participate.
Abid Imam: How do you say parkour in Russian?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Parkour [Паркур, in the Russian alphabet with a rolled R].You know parkour is like a, you know when especially boys, but now girls start to do it. When they run in the city and they jump over everything, like, I don’t know how to say it, but do you understand?
Abid Imam: I coach some of that here in Australia! [excitedly]
Yelena Isinbaeva: Ahh really? [excitedly too!]
Abid Imam: Yes, I have been coaching athletics and gymnastics here for some years. It’s part of one of my jobs here. I work in development in Australia, so I am so interested in what you are saying.
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, you know we have many young people doing parkour and workouts here. Of course, we don’t have facilities for this and I try to improve it because it’s very simple but it’s very necessary because everyone can do sport. So, yes, I am happy to hear it! So maybe once I will invite you from Australia to my city to teach our children.
Abid Imam: Absolutely love to, because I will be there in July so maybe it’s possible. [laughs]
I just have a couple more questions. I want to hear about a story I saw where you were having lunch and Roman Abramovich was on the table and he heard your home city Volgograd, where you were training had facilities that needed maintenance help. He heard about that and said he could help you out. Can you tell us about that?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, of course. It was in 2010 after the FIFA bid, when we finished we went to lunch all together. I was sitting next to him and he was asking, you know Yelena, ‘how are you? how’s everything? how are things in Volgograd? how are the sport facilities?’ da, da, da. I said everything is fine, but our indoor hall is actually very old. The facilities have not been improved a little bit, that we don’t have money and it’s very cold during the winter. We begin to get injuries and I am afraid because we need to compete.
I started to explain to him and answer his questions and then he said ‘you know what? I can help you!’. I said, ‘ok but how?’. The biggest problem was the windows in the indoor hall were very old and when it was minus 10 outside, indoors it was maybe zero. But you don’t know because you are in Australia! (laughs) It’s very cold and difficult to warm up your body as you’re always feeling cold. It’s a big risk to get injured. He said ‘Ok, I will help you, I will change these windows in the old hall. So, like this you will feel comfortable’.
Of course, my first impression was, great, super! But then I was afraid he could forget. So, the next day I said, ‘Mr Abramovich I am sorry but wouldn’t you forget about this?’ And he just looked at me and said ‘Yelena, I never forget anything!’ [laughs].After his word I was confident he would help me, and he helped. He gave us money and we changed the windows so now during the winter when it’s minus 10 or 20 outside, inside the hall its about 20-25 degrees and now everyone is complaining that it’s so hot [laughs].
Abid Imam: Now it’s like Australia inside!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Yes, it’s a funny story.
Abid Imam: The whole world is really looking forward to the World Cup now. I am so excited to visit Russia to see what it’s like and to see the people. 10 years ago, you were standing there in the FIFA headquarters and you were talking to the FIFA President. You were representing Russia with your speech. Apparently, the night before you didn’t know you would be doing the speech [laughs] could you tell us about what that was like for you?
Yelena Isinbaeva: I was surprised [laughs]. I was very honoured about this and when they gave me the opportunity to speak I was like ’Wow’ [laughs] such a crazy thing. How could I express? It was something that was comparable to a competition. Because you represent your country, whole, huge Russia. Yes, it was a very big honour but of course a responsibility because there was no chance for me to make a mistake, but yeah, I was very happy. The important thing was that I didn’t know my speech was live. I thought that it would be recorded somewhere and then they will show it. Then when I finished everyone said ‘Yelena, did you know that it was live?’. I said whoa! But it was a good thing I didn’t know from the beginning because maybe it could not happen because I was nervous.
Abid Imam: What opportunity does this World Cup provide now for Russia to really showcase itself and what legacy do you think can come out from it?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Well of course for our country the World Cup is an opportunity to present a new, modern and developing Russia to the whole world. No doubt the World Cup will push the development of economics, business, international relationships, infrastructure and tourism in our country. The World Cup will have a positive impact on the development of football and sport in general in our country.
Its legacy will become a centre of attraction for tourists and even athletes. Now we will have the stadiums, hotels, the infrastructure to help not just football but any other sports events at international level. So, we will get many positive things from this World Cup especially in my city. Now we have a new airport, we have new travel stations, we have new bus stations, we have many 5-star hotels. We have a train that delivers you directly from the airport to the stadium. If there was no World Cup, we would never have it. So now our city has just changed completely to the better side. We are just thankful and happy about everything. Abid Imam: Yelena, to finish how is your family life going? You now have children, people listening to this interview could hear a lot of background fun happening. How is family life for you now finally?
Yelena Isinbaeva: Finally, yes, I have my family, my husband. He’s a very good person, he loves me a lot. I’m very happy that he’s also a former athlete, two metres tall [laughs]. I am just a small girl when we are together. Of course, now I have my beautiful daughter and now three-month boy. So, I am just happy to have my family which will help me to improve myself in the future to realise projects and now to achieve my goals in life, which is connected to them now. I retired from sport, but I will stay close to sport because it gave me everything, now I like to give back to sport everything that I can.So, I will take this opportunity to thank all fans that I have in Australia for their support, for their belief in myself. I am really thankful, and I hope that for some of them my sport history could help them to achieve their goals in life, even if it’s not in sport [laughs]. So, thanks a lot.
Abid Imam: Yelena it’s been absolutely fun and great to talk to you. How can people help your foundation? Is there anywhere you want to direct people to on the internet to help you with what you do
Yelena Isinbaeva: Thank you, we are planning to sell some products with the label of my foundation. You will love that my label is a dolphin. I don’t know if you know about my passion and love for dolphins?
Abid Imam: We have many here!
Yelena Isinbaeva: Oh, if you could send something special to me I would be happy! I would say that this is from Australia! Yes, we will sell some products with the dolphin and all proceeds collected from sales will go to our foundation and it will help us to build a new playground and to buy new equipment or the kids. It will be coming soon. If someone wants to donate money, it’s also appreciated because we have many projects which need to be realised this year and next year. I would be happy if someone likes to help.
Abid Imam: Yelena, thank you very much. Hopefully we meet sometime, all the best and I hope we hear from you a lot in your projects. So, thank you very much.
Yelena Isinbaeva: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure for me too. Have a wonderful day or night [laughs].