Russian pole-vaulting legend Yelena Isinbayeva is in Rio for this year’s Olympics, but she isn’t competing: Russia’s entire track and field team was banned from the Games over the a massive state-sponsored doping scandal. Instead, she’s lobbying to become president of the Russian Athletics Federation while also spitting some impressive shade at the non-banned athletes in Rio.
According to Tass, Isinbayeva was asked what she thinks about the track and field gold medal winners this year, with Russian athletes not competing.
“What will I say to those who will take first place? They will be second by default,” she said.
Isinbayeva, 34, owns the women’s pole-vaulting world record and won gold in Athens and Beijing before taking bronze four years ago in London. She has never failed a doping test and blasted the IAAF’s decision to ban all of Russia’s track and field athletes from the Rio Olympics.
“Let’s be clear: doping is a global issue that has cast a shadow over athletics in many countries,” she wrote in a letter to the New York Times in June. “So if some Russian athletes have failed doping tests, why must Russia’s clean athletes face a ban? Why shouldn’t we be able to compete in Rio against the clean athletes from other countries in Rio?”
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