Here’s yet another Isi-interview that’s been sitting around for two weeks before I found it. There’s nothing particularly new or enlightening here, but still …On 25 January 2006, Аргументы и Факты (Arguments and Facts) wrote:Yelena Isinbayeva: "Don’t think that I am such a millionaire!"
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Yelena ISINBAYEVA interrogation. At this time before the title of best female light athlete of Europe...
[ The caption on the illustration below is a bit ludicrous – it asks whether Yelena Isinbayeva can conquer Sergey Bubka’s height. –BF ]
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9 WORLD records, gold medals in the championships of the world and Europe, a half million prizes — with these results the 23-year-old Volgograd sportswoman completed 2005. The girl with the pole begins 2006 with new ambitions, a new place of work and a new trainer. She talks about the changes in the components of her success and possessing a new title in an exclusive interview with "AiF".
"Not offended by her trainer's money"
— LENA, after you left Volgograd for Donetsk, persistent rumors sprung up about a change of your "sport citizenship", first to Ukrainian, then to Italian. Is it true that the Italians offered 6 million dollars to you, if you would agree to come out under their flag?
— It astonishes me that they actively discuss this theme in the press. There were never even such thoughts! I don’t plan to change citizenship — neither sport nor usual. But about the story of Italians offering money to me, I learned of it completely from a call from my manager, who read the information in some German newspaper. As before at all competitions I will protect the honor and glory of Russia and my native Volgograd.
— In this case recently they awarded the title of honorable citizen of Donetsk to you...
— This is a simple gesture of good will from the local authorities. I do not live in the Ukraine and don’t plan to move there. To me this is simply unnecessary — neither from a sport nor from an everyday point of view. But my location depends exclusively on my training and competing program. Today this is Donetsk, tomorrow — possibly Monaco, where the company which handles all my business affairs is located, or Italy, where my present trainer Vitaliy Petrov, the former teacher of Sergey Bubka, has already lived for a long time.
— At home you are not bored?
— Boredom doesn’t come. I simply don’t have time for that. Every day two-time trainings. Even with my parents and sister, in essence I correspond by electronic mail. I cannot allow myself frequent telephone calls — believe me, I get very tired.
— But how do you maintain relations with your boyfriend?
— Excuse me, but I don’t answer questions about my personal life.
— Why did you part with your trainer Yevgeny Trofimov?
— At once I want to say that everything I only dreamed of, I attained precisely with Yevgeny Vasilevich. I became the champion of Europe and the world. I won at the Olympic Games. 18 times I established world records. I was the first who overcame the magic height of 5.00 meters. And I am immeasurably grateful to him for everything. But understanding arrived at some moment, that after such stunning successes I required a new motivation, a new desire to create — and precisely I consider sport as creative work. In this situation I calculated that a change of trainer was a necessary step for achieving of new apexes.
— It sounds very beautiful; however, the opinion exists that money played the not last role in the trainer question.
— This is untrue. Trofimov never offended me in this sense; yes he even always took the minimum percentage from the prize —much smaller than others in his status.
— By the way, about the prizes. In the past year you established 9 world records, obtaining 50 thousand dollars for each. Not bad starting capital for a 23-year-old girl.
— I haven’t absolutely saved my winnings. My sister got married and I had to help my parents pay for the preparations... And last year I purchased an apartment for mom and dad. Don’t think that I’m such a millionaire! From each record there are taxes, a deduction for my manager, for my trainer. For example, in England just the tax from the prize is twenty-two percent! Do the math.
— Is it true that your beloved book is called "How to Earn Your First Million"?
— (Embarrassment.) Well, I don’t love it that much... Only please, don’t write that I’m obsessed with money. I randomly read one chapter of this book on the Internet. So it’s interesting! All human psychology is described.
"Envious looks cannot bore"
— Do you frequently recall your already legendary leap to 5 meters in London?
— Very frequently. There are such situations in life, when a chance is given to you, which then can never again present itself. In London everything came together: my condition, the weather, the attitude of the public. And I felt that precisely today I can do this. No other start for me was so, my word of honor. Yes, I sometimes accomplished good jumps, but there was no such internal understanding — I can. But here it unexpectedly appeared.
— Many athletes live their entire career for one record, but you beat them almost every week. It’s not boring?
— Perhaps one can be bored by the ovation of the spectators, the fees for the victory, and the enraptured and envious looks from the competitors! These are still minutes of enormous happiness. I quietly break all my records during training and before the appearance at a new tournament I am already prepared to take the not-conquered-by-anyone height. The main thing for me is simply that I like to jump with a pole. I want to establish 36 world records. So that I would have more of them than Bubka. I want to win the Olympiad again and in this to also exceed Sergey Nazarovich.
— Bubka is your idol?
— Not idol, but example. Idol — this someone of Leonardo DiCaprio’s type for schoolgirls. To squeal about, and after half a year to forget. My parents educated my sister and me so that we would only want to resemble ourselves. I remember, when I was 14-years-old, in Volgograd wide colorful skirts were in fashion. All the girls wore them, and I asked mom to purchase the same for me. I heard the answer: "Nothing to go round like everyone! Wear that which pleases you, but not your girlfriends ". Since then I try to have my own opinion on everything.
Yevgeny SLYUSARENKO, Agency of sport information
"Vyes sport" — special for "Arguments and Facts"
Photo Reuter
Edited to restore the text lost due to the old server's improper handling of non-ANSI text.
Doh!
... if not entirely natural.
I'm hoping for some sort of renewal of the rivalry.
