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AP Olympics Columnist...

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/ne...ov=ap&type=lgns

All that matters is third paragraph, in bold. That's bold writing right there. God bless you AP editors.

quote:

BEIJING (AP)�Yelena Isinbayeva got the Olympic gold and a world record; American Jenn Stuczynski got the silver and a lesson in humility. And we now have a new rivalry that should make woman�s pole vaulting fun to watch for many more years to come. Big poles and big mouths don�t go together. Stuczynski knows that now. Pole vaulting isn�t basketball or boxing. It�s far too graceful of a sport for the kind of trash-talk she doled out before the Beijing Games. �I hope we do some damage,� she had said, �and, you know, kick some Russian butt.� Big mistake. Isinbayeva is Russian but she understands English just fine. The greatest women�s pole vaulter of all time heard Stuczynski�s challenge loud and clear. �I am not deaf,� she said. �It made me really angry.� Their head-to-head clash turned Monday night at the Bird�s Nest stadium in Beijing into a showdown, with long poles instead of Don King. First, some Cliffs Notes for those who didn�t tune into this saga, with its slightly musty Cold War whiff, in the run-up to the Olympics. � Stuczynski: Tall, wholesome American, natural athlete; took up pole vaulting late, had a gift for it, quickly became second-best woman�s vaulter of all time, behind the Russian. � Isinbayeva: Lithe former gymnast who switched to pole vault when she grew too tall as a teen, hasn�t looked back since. In a class of her own. Like any good fight, the public announcer introduced the combatants first. Isinbayeva was presented last and got the crowd�s biggest roar. No mistaking who the Bird�s Nest was rooting for. Isinbayeva is a bit like those supermodels who supposedly don�t get out of bed for anything less than a very lucrative photo shoot. Only when the bar has reached dizzying heights that most other vaulters can�t clear does Isinbayeva deign to take her first jump. She�s just that good. Monday night, her first jump was 4 meters 70 (15 feet, 5 inches). She soared right over. Seven of the 11 other vaulters had already dropped out by that point. And so up the bar went, and up again. It�s that exquisite turning of the screw that makes pole vaulting so addictive to watch. Who�ll crack first? Women�s pole vault has only been an Olympic sport since the Sydney Games in 2000. It was an instant crowd pleaser. Almost single-handedly thanks to Isinbayeva, the sport has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Stacy Dragila�s winning height in Sydney was 4.60 (15-1), which Stuczynski and Isinbayeva now sail over that in their sleep. On Monday night, the last two hangers on dropped out with the bar at 4.80 (15-9), leaving Isi and Stu to fight it out for the gold alone. The Russian won by KO. She cleared 4.85 (15-11). Stuczynski vaulted no higher than 4.80. Game over. Almost. With the whole stadium now eating out of her hand, Isinbayeva wasn�t going to stop there. The crowd had only seen her jump twice�that was all it had taken for her to defend her Olympic crown. She wanted to give them more � and perhaps rub that American nose just a little deeper in the dirt. It was showtime. Isinbayeva-time. And that meant a world record. First, she broke the Olympic record�her own, from Athens four years ago� as an appetizer. Then, the bar went to a height it�s never been before, 5.05 (16-6 3/4). She got it on the last of her three tries. She was celebrating even before she had fallen back to earth. She screamed. Clutched her face. Screamed some more. Did a forward somersault. Grabbed a Russian flag from someone in the crowd and set off on a lap of honor. And that whole time, Stuczynski was made to wait, sitting on a row of plastic chairs, until Isinbayeva had cleared the magic height. It was the 24th time that the Russian had set a world record; she generally likes to eke them out one centimeter at a time. Afterward, Stuczynski didn�t want to talk about her pre-game trash-talk, brushing off a question with an abrupt �OK, next.� It was her first Olympics and her first medal, �I couldn�t ask for anything more,� she said. Beaten but not cowed, she said she expects to catch Isinbayeva eventually. �It�s just experience. She�s been in the Olympics before, she�s been in world championships, she�s jumped a decade longer than me, so it�s just a matter of time,� she said. Isinbayeva tried not to be smug. She had done what she had set out to do: let her vaulting do the talking. �I just wanted to prove who is the best at the Olympic Games.� But she couldn�t resist one last little dig �She must respect me and � know her position,� she said. �Now she knows it.�

someone please prove the author wrong!

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