1987 - 1997
From the age of 5 to 15, Isinbayeva trained as a gymnast in her hometown of Volgograd. She ultimately left the sport because as she grew she was considered too tall to be competitive in gymnastics, ultimately attaining a height of 1.74m (5'8½").
1998 - 2002
Six months after having taken up pole-vaulting she won her first major victory at age 16 during the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow, Russia with a height of 4.00m. It was her third athletic competition. She jumped the same height at the 1998 World Junior Championships in Annecy, France, but this left her 10 cm away from the medal placings. In 1999, Isinbaeva improved on this height at the World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland when she cleared 4.10m to take her second gold medal.
At the 2000 World Juniors Isinbaeva again took first place clearing 4.20m ahead of German Annika Becker. The same year the women's pole vault made its debut as an Olympic event in Sydney, Australia where Stacy Dragila of the United States took gold. In the same event Isinbayeva did not make it out of the qualifying round.
She won another gold medal in 2001, this time at the European Junior Championships with a winning height of 4.40 m.
Isinbayeva continued to improve and 2002 saw her clear 4.55m at the European Championships, where she gained her first senior championship medal (silver), finishing 5 cm short of her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova.
2003
2003 was another year of progression and saw Isinbayeva win the European Under 23 Championships gold with 4.65m (in Bydgoszcz). On July 13, 2003, just about a month after her 21st birthday, Isinbayeva set her first World Record at a meeting in Gateshead, England with a height of 4.82m, which had made her the favourite to take gold at the World Championships the following month. She ended up winning the bronze medal with Feofanova taking gold and Becker the silver.
2004
At a meeting at Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbaeva set a new indoor world record, with a height of 4.83m only to see Feofanova increase this by two centimetres the following week. The following month at the World's Indoor in March Isinbaeva broke Feofanova's record with a gold medal winning jump of 4.86m beating reigning indoor & outdoor champion Feofanova into bronze with reigning Olympic champion Dragila taking silver. The IAAF considered all three records to be over-all (outdoor) records, hence the indoor and outdoor records now stood at 4.86m
27 June saw Isinbaeva return to Gateshead and improved the world record to 4.87m. Feofanova responded the following week by breaking the record by a centimetre in Heraklion, Greece.
On 25 July in Birmingham, England, Isinbaeva reclaimed the record jumping 4.89m and five days later in Crystal Palace, London, added a further centimetre to the record.
The pole vault was one of the most eagerly awaited events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. When Feofanova failed at 4.90m the gold medal was Isinbayeva's, and she subsequently set a new world record height of 4.91m. She broke her own record later that year at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels with a 4.92m jump. It was her eight world record of the season, which along with her Olympic & World Indoor title helped her gain her first World Athlete of the Year award.
2005
At the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain Isinbaeva won gold with a new indoor world record of 4.90m. In July 2005, Isinbaeva broke the world record four times over three separate meetings. First in Lausanne, Switzerland, she added an extra centimetre to her own mark clearing 4.93m. It was the 14th world record of Isinbayeva's career coming just three months after she broke her own indoor mark (4.89m) in Lievin. Eleven days later, in Madrid, Spain, she added an additional 2 cm to clear 4.95m. In Crystal Palace, London on 22 July, after improving the record to 4.96m, she raised the bar to 5.00m. She then became the first woman in history to clear the once mythical five-metre barrier in pole vaulting, achieving the monumental mark with a single attempt.
After the women's pole vault final at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland was delayed due to extremely bad weather conditions, Isinbaeva once again broke her own world record, performing 5.01m in her second attempt, and winning the competition with a 41cm margin of victory, which was the greatest margin ever obtained in any World or Olympic competition for the event. This was already the eighteenth world record in the career of the then 23-year-old Isinbayeva and her successful season was crowned with her second consecutive World Athlete of the Year award.
2006
At an indoor meeting on 12 February in Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbayeva set a new indoor world record. She cleared 4.91m. In March she successfully defended her World Indoor title in front of a homeland crowd in Moscow, Russia. During the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg she won the gold medal with a CR of 4.80metres. This was the only gold medal missing from her collection until that time. In September she won the World Cup, representing Russia, in Athens.
Isinbaeva was crowned Laureus World Sports Woman of the Year for the 2006 season.
2007
On 10 February 2007 in Donetsk, Ukraine, Isinbayeva broke the world indoor pole vault record again, by clearing 4.93metres. It was Isinbayeva's 20th world record.
On 28 August 2007 Isinbaeva repeated as world champion in Osaka at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics with a 4.80m performance, then failed three times at setting a new world record at 5.02m. Her competition did no better than 4.75m.
In 2007 she also won the IAAF Golden League Jackpot (which she shared with Sanya Richards) after having won all 2007 IAAF Golden League meetings. Isinbaeva was unbeaten in the 2007 season and won 18 out of 18 competitions.
2008
During the indoor season, Isinbaeva set her twenty-first world record, clearing 4.95metres on 16 February 2008 in Donetsk, Ukraine. A few weeks later, in Valencia, Spain, Isinbaeva won the World Indoor Championships over Jennifer Stuczynski. It was Isinbaeva's third consecutive World Indoor title.
On 11 July, at her first outdoor competition of the season, Rome's Golden Gala, Isinbaeva broke her own world record, clearing 5.03metres. This was her first world record outdoors since the 2005 World Championships. Isinbaeva stated that she had tried 5.02metres so many times unsuccessfully that her coach told her to change something and so she attempted 5.03metres. This record came just as people began to speculate her fall from the top of pole vaulting, as American Jennifer Stuczynski cleared 4.92metres at the American Olympic Trials. Isinbaeva stated that this motivated her to maintain her reputation as the world's greatest female pole vaulter. A few weeks later, at the Aviva London Grand Prix, Isinbaeva and Stuczynski competed together for the first time of the outdoor season. Isinbayeva won the competition, with Stuczynski finishing second. Both attempted a new world record of 5.04metres. Isinbaeva was tantalizingly close on her final attempt, with the bar falling only after Isinbaeva had landed on the mat.
She successfully cleared that height on 29 July, in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, her twenty-third world record.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing on 18 August, Isinbaeva needed two vaults to prolong her Olympic title reign and went on to finish the competition with 5.05m, a world record at the time, her 24th world record.
On 23 November in Monaco, she was selected World Athlete of the Year by the IAAF for the third time in her career, along with Jamaican male sprinter Usain Bolt.
2009
Isinbayeva started the 2009 season by becoming the first woman to vault over 5metres indoors. She first raised her world indoor mark with a vault of 4.97m, then raised the bar to 5.00m and cleared that height as well. The two marks were set at the "Pole Vault Stars" indoor meet, on 15 February, in Donetsk, Ukraine. It was the sixth consecutive year she had set an indoor world record in this meet. She received the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year in recognition of her achievements - it was also the fifth time she had been nominated for the award in as many years. At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, Isinbayeva lost her second competition of the year after failing to achieve a successful vault. She lost to Anna Rogowska who also beat her in the London Grand Prix in May. However, Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own women's pole vault world record at the Weltklasse Golden League meeting by clearing 5.06m. On September 2nd she was given the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Sports.
