Talk About Girl Power: Women’s Pole Vault at the Olympics (With Giveaway!)
Meet Yelena Isinbaeva, competing in women’s pole vault.
We are blogging on behalf of the Visa Go World Olympic Campaign and receive compensation for our time, but the thoughts, words, and promotions on this page are FBG’s, not Visa’s. The gift card promotion is not sponsored by Visa in any way.
There may be just a few days left of the London 2012 Olympic Games, but we are still going strong with our Olympics obsession. In fact, we might cry when they’re over. Seriously. While we’ve been jabbering a lot about swimming (really, though, how could you not with this guy?!), today we wanted to draw your attention to a sport—and a woman—that is nothing short of bad-ass. Welcome to the women’s pole vault. And say hello to Russian Yelena Isinbaeva.
Not only is Isinbaeva insanely talented and strong, she’s got drive, focus and a sense of humor that we love. Check out the video below from Visa Go World to hear more about how Isinbaeva got into the sport and how the world used to think of women’s pole vault (key words there being “used to”). Her jab that men’s pole vault is the women’s warm-up? That’s just gold, baby…
Hilarious and awesome, no? We so want to have a beer—or, more appropriately, a shot of Russian vodka—with her. And then learn more about how she trains to do that. Just incredible.
To help celebrate the amazingness of Olympic athletes like Isinbaeva who are Visa Go World athletes, we’re doing another giveaway today! Leave a comment with your favorite London 2012 Olympic Games moment thus far, and you’ll be entered to win a $20 Visa gift card. While it’s not required, we think you should go check out Visa Go World’s Facebook page for this awesome app, too, so that you can cheer on your favorite athletes, like Isinbaeva, from around the world. And if you’re on the Twitter talking about this, be sure to use #VisaGoWorld! We’ll select a winner in about a week—U.S. readers only, please.
Anyone actually done pole vault before?! Do tell… —Jenn
Comments
My favorite moment so far has to be Erick Barrondo winning the first ever Olympic medal for his home country of Guatemala. It was an amazing moment to see. He received silver for men’s 20k race walking. And apparently he’s going to be knighted when he gets back to Guatemala! Never been to Guatemala and I’d never seen the sport before, but it was very touching nonetheless.
My definite favorite was Mackayla Maroney’s awesome vault in the women’s team final!
Seeing Sanya Richards-Ross win the 400m was great!
womens gymnastic USA winning gold!
Seeing Gabby won her first gold medal.
Kristy beat me to it. Maroney’s vault was amazing!! She was a major reason the team won gold even though she only competed in one event.
Loved seeing gymnastics team gold!! So inspiring.
When Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings won their match last night and now it is a USA vs USA match for the gold!!!!!!!
My favorite London 2012 Olympic Games moment thus far, was when Nick Skelton tied for 1st by 3/10s of a second ! I jumped off my sofa and screamed at the TV, spilling my drink in the process.
I loved seeing Gabby win the gold in the all around!
I am so glad Oskar (Bladerunner) competed. He is an inspiration to many.
My favorite moment was seeing Gabby Douglas win the gold for gymnastics.
Kelli Wells take bronze in 110 hurdles. I read an amazing article about her in Runners World and I’m so glad she did well.
I like watching the USA women’s soccer team win against Canada in the final 30 seconds and then advance to the finals.
It’s fresh in my mind: Misty & Kerri winning gold in volleyball. Hard to believe they’re retiring. They really deserved it.
My favorite is a little unconventional. I was so inspired to see Antonina Krivoshapka run during her semin-final 400m heat. I identified with being a small, blonde girl, and I naturally rooted for her! When she came in 6th place at the final event, I felt her pain and anguish along with her. The Olympics inspire us all to do our best, but also to deal with failure– and how best to rise above!
Michael Phelps winning gold. Amazing
So far I LOVED watching the Equestrian Cross Country! The course this year was so creative and challenging and gave the riders so many hard choices!
There have been so many. But I teared up when the USA women’s gymnastics won gold. Their performances were amazing, and seeing everyone support each other like they do is sometimes rare but magical. We should all take some lessons from that!
My favorite Olympic moment was watching the Women’s Gymnastics Team win gold!
I loved watching Aly Raisman shine on the floor exercise.
Mine was watching the Women’s 4x100m Relay beat the World Record
I loved seeing Gabby Douglas and the Women’s Team winning gold
My most favorite moment was when Michael Phelps breaking the record for medals
My favorite moment was watching Gabby win the Gold in the all-around competition. She is a phenominal athlete.
watching Oscar Pistorius run!
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There were so many fabulous moments during the Olympics. I think seeing Park Tae Hwan winning two medals in swimming was beautiful
The gymnastics events were all my favorite. Seeing Team USA so emotional after winning gold was wonderful and just seeing how young they are is just inspiration.
I loved watching the fab 5 win the gold in women’s gymnastics!
i loved Gabby winning moment, it was a very proud moment for her and so spectacular!
Mo farah’s runs were my favorite – he is so fast
All of the swimming events were great to watch!
Seeing all the swimming events!
I really loved the platform diving. USA is so amazing!
I didn’t realize how difficult pole vaulting was. This was the first time that I’ve seen the Pole Vaulting olympics and I was blown away by it
Gabby winning gold in the All Around Event Finals!
Seeing the Blade Runner was awesome. He’s truly inspiring and when the other runner switched name tags with him was so heart touching.
When Gabby Douglas gave all glory to God!
My favorite moment was watching the finals for the men’s 5,000 meter run!! Why because Lopez Lomong graduated from my high school and I know him!!! SO very cool he came in 10th something our town is very proud of!! (But watching the swimmers and gymnasts wasn’t to bad either some of the guys were very nice looking)
I was incredibly excited when Nathan Adrian won the 50m Freestyle by 1/100 of a second!
My favorite yet least favorite moment was watching the South Korean fencer stay strong and proud through the emotionally wrenching wait to find her chance to medal stolen by a broken timing system coupled with a teenaged volunteer timer. GREAT Olympics, UK. Truly awesome but that was a major slip up. Trusting a teen to time fencing? And not owning up when a 1 second slip cost her the gold? Shameful.
Most US sports broadcast did not publicize the slip.
My favorite moment was when Michael Phelps huddled with his team mates and thanked him for their help in reaching his goal. It was great to see that he knew it was a team effort which seems to get lost in many sports these days.
My favorite moment was the American Women’s Soccer Team won the gold!
I always love watching the medal ceremonies, especially when so many awesome athletes earned the honor of hearing the USA’s national anthem. There were so many great moments and victories this year!
Seeing the opening ceremony is always wonderful because there is just something beautiful about seeing all these countries coming together
My friends and I are all gymnastics fans. I loved seeing Mckayla do her amanar!
When the skeet shooter won her gold by only missing 1 out of 100 targets. That’s incredible!
Misty and Kerri third straight Olympic Gold!!! 🙂
I loved watching the US soccer team beat Japan.
My favorite London 2012 Olympic Games moment was when David Boudia won gold in diving
And the winner is…comment #34, Lindsey! Emailing you now to get your mailing address.
Thanks to everyone who entered!
–FBG Jenn
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