• World Athletics Championships

Isinbayeva: Anti-gay comments 'misunderstood'

Yelena Isinbayeva claims her controversial statements on Russia's anti-gay law were misunderstood, blaming her poor English and insisting she does not discriminate based on sexuality.

In June, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, made it illegal for citizens under the age of 18 to obtain information about homosexuality. The signing of the law was widely condemned, with calls for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

There have been several protests from athletes at the World Championships in Moscow this week. US runner Nick Symmonds dedicated his 800 metres silver medal to his gay and lesbian friends, while Emma Green Tregaro, the Swedish high-jumper, painted her nails in the rainbow colours of the gay pride flag.

Isinbayeva criticised Green Tregaro's gesture, defending the new law in a press conference before picking up her pole vault gold medal on Thursday. Her comments have been widely condemned, leading to Isinbayeva releasing a statement via the IAAF, athletics' world governing body.

"English is not my first language and I think I may have been misunderstood when I spoke yesterday," she said.

"What I wanted to say was that people should respect the laws of other countries particularly when they are guests.

"But let me make it clear I respect the views of my fellow athletes and let me state in the strongest terms that I am opposed to any discrimination against gay people on the grounds of their sexuality (which is against the Olympic charter)."

Isinbayeva, speaking in English, had said of Green Tregaro's fingernail gesture on Thursday: "It's disrespectful to our country, disrespectful to our citizens because we are Russians.

"Maybe we are different than European people and people from different lands.

"We have our law which everyone has to respect. When we go to different countries, we try to follow their rules.

"We are not trying to set our rules over there. We are just trying to be respectful.

"We consider ourselves, like normal, standard people, we just live boys with women, girls with boys... it comes from the history.

"I hope the problem won't ruin our Olympic Games in Sochi."

Isinbayeva, who will act as the mayor of the main athletes' village at Sochi, is an ambassador for the Youth Olympics, and British heptathlete Louise Hazel has called for her to be removed from that position.

However the IOC have stated that they will not rush into any decision.

"You will appreciate that English is not her first language so we want to be absolutely clear about what she said and if that is what she 'meant' to say before we make further comment," a statement said.

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