Record jump: how 15 years ago Isinbaeva was the first in history to take a height of five meters with a pole

On July 22, 2005, Russian athlete Elena Isinbaeva became the first athlete in history to overcome the bar at a height of five meters in pole vaulting. This happened at the IAAF Super Grand Prix in London.

Isinbayeva's dominance at the adult level began back in 2003, when she first became a bronze medalist at the World Championships in Paris, and also set her first world record, which was 4.82 m at the time. entrenched in the national team.

And the next year, the athlete became the winner of the Olympics in Athens and the championship of the planet indoors in Budapest. Prior to that, she collected all possible awards at the junior and youth level and almost qualified for the Sydney Games, where the debut of women's pole vaulting was to take place. However, the athlete failed to qualify, so the Olympic dream had to be postponed for four years.

After the first major success, Isinbayeva began to conquer the heights, one after another, and with them - the highest awards of the largest competitions. In 2007 alone, she single-handedly set seven world records. At that time, her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova was her main competitor.

In March 2005, the athlete became the European Indoor Champion for the first time and went to the IAAF Super Grand Prix in London as a favorite. In early July, she became the author of the next world record (4.93 m), and after 11 days she improved it by another two centimeters.

Despite such outstanding successes of the Russian woman, then few could assume that the woman would conquer the five-meter height. But she herself believed in herself and knew that a historic achievement was only a matter of time.

By the time Isinbayeva entered the sector, most of the rivals had already dropped out. The first plank was set with a large margin - at 4.70 m - and the jumper took it on the first try. The second height - 4.80 m - did not cause any problems either. Here, the bronze medalist of Athens-2004 Anna Rogovskaya joined the fight. The representative of Poland showed the same result, so the Russian woman had to take risks.

She missed the 4.90 m mark and set the bar immediately to a record 4.96 m. After the first attempt, the bar fell down. The same situation was repeated on the second jump. For the third time, Isinbayeva still managed to overcome this milestone and delight the thousands of Crystal Palace arena. Rogovskaya was no longer capable of such a feat.

At this point, the pole vault competition could have been completed, because the gold medal was in the Russian woman's pocket. That is why many spectators did not even immediately understand why the stubborn athlete reappeared in the sector, and thought that she intended to make a training jump.

Isinbaeva herself has repeatedly admitted that it was the stands that charged her to conquer the records. Sometimes her strength left her, but the energy of the fans worked wonders and forced her to overcome new heights. Perhaps the delight of the London public pushed her to try again this time.

To loud applause and numerous shouts, the Russian woman confidently fled, pushed off and flew over the bar set at the five-meter mark. An unattainable height was taken.

After the historic success, the athlete was in the spotlight. In numerous interviews that she then had to distribute, she admitted that she had always dreamed of conquering this particular height.

“Today my dream has come true. It is very difficult for me to describe my feelings. It's incredible. I have already said that the first woman to jump five meters will become a legend. And I jumped. I had the strength to conquer this height, and I did it. I felt that today is my day. When I took 4.96 m, I said to myself: “If this height conquered me, then why not try five meters?”, “Soviet Sport” quoted Isinbaeva.

Immediately after the competition, the Russian woman was congratulated by her idol, the legendary Sergei Bubka. He wished her to conquer her own achievement and overcome the mark of 36 world records.

“Elena is a unique athlete. She will do whatever she wants. See how she breaks records one by one. Now that's five meters. This is, without exaggeration, a great event, and today has already gone down in history. But I'm sure Lena will be able to jump even higher, ”said Bubka.

The athlete was not going to stop there. Before the World Championships in Helsinki in August of the same year, she announced that she intended to conquer 5.05 m. She did not succeed in carrying out her plan until the end, although a new world record of 5.01 m was still achieved.

In 2008, she improved her own achievement four times (including at the Beijing Olympics), and stopped at the 5.06 m mark at the end of August 2009, set at the tournament in Zurich. In total, Isinbayeva has conquered absolute height 17 times, and 28 times she set world records.

It is worth noting that after the Russian woman the American Sandy Morris (5.00 m) and Jennifer Sur (5.03 m) overcame the five-meter mark.

For almost 11 years, no one has managed to break Isinbayeva's record, although many assume that this should happen in the near future. Her long-term mentor Yevgeny Trofimov said that at one of the trainings on the eve of the home world championship in Moscow, the ward managed to jump 5.11 m.But she did not succeed in consolidating her success at the official starts.

After the suspension of her career in 2013, Isinbayeva intended to return to the sport and was actively preparing for her fourth Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But due to the removal of the Russian track and field team, her plans were not destined to come true.