Russian pole vaulter and two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva has threatened to quit the sport if she is barred from competing at Rio 2016. A Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on Thursday upheld the IAAF's decision to suspend Russia's track and field athletes from the 2016 Games amid allegations of state-sponsored doping.
Isinbayeva, who took gold in Athens and Beijing before finishing third at London 2012, had lofty expectations for Rio, but is now contemplating calling it a day if the IOC's final decision – expected this week – follows the prevailing trend.
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"If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejects Russian athletes' participation in the Games, I can see no sense in continuing my training further," Isinbayeva wrote on social network channel VKontakte . "We were planning to clear the height not lower than 5.1 metres. My coach and I expected that I would win with a world record at the Olympics.
"I'll open a small secret to you. I'm a candidate for this commission. Its members will be elected by all participants in the Olympic Games. There're twenty-four of us and only four will be elected.
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"A candidate should be physically present at Rio and if we are not let there and I don't take a flight to Brazil, I just won't be able to be present there. And I did hope this would be the first step in my career of a sports official. Yet I don't feel any support on the part of foreign athletes anyway, because they're praying for the absence of Russian competitors from the Rio Games."
Isinbayeva holds the world record already, having set a mark of 5.06 back in August 2009.
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