‘If We Are Ugly Nobody Will Be Interested’
"Every girl on the track has a duty to be nice-looking and womanly," said Yelena Isinbayeva, the current world record holder in the pole vault and recently named World Athlete of the Year.. "I remember a very famous athlete said that we had to be athletes or women. I don't agree. Why do we have to be an athlete and have a man's body and be ugly? Why can we only be beautiful outside sport?"
In other words, she's saying her opponents are bootleg-looking, according to Sports By Brooks. And of course, she's absolutely right. More:
When I went to the Sydney Olympics [in 2000] I felt like an ugly duckling, like a stick insect. I was out of place. Now I try to be beautiful. On the track we are the centre of attention. If we are ugly then nobody will be interested. They wouldn't listen to the result, they would just say: ‘Uggh, she is so horrible.'"
Sports By Brooks had this opinion of Isinbayeva:
From a very close inspection of Isinbayeva's videos and photos, the irony is she isn't all that pretty either. And though she has some rather phenomenal fleshy hindquarters, her a$$ isn't even the best on the track.
