Baby joy for high jumper
Former Olympic high jump champion Yelena Slesarenko will miss London 2012 after becoming pregnant.
Last Updated: 20/01/12 7:48am
Former Olympic high jump champion Yelena Slesarenko will miss London 2012 following the news that she is expecting her first child.
The 29-year-old Russian reached the height of her career in 2004 when she won the gold medal in Athens before going on to win World Championship medals in Budapest, Moscow and Valencia.
However Slesarenko, who will celebrate her 30th birthday next month, will switch focus to family for the meantime after the couple delighted in the news of a forthcoming child.
"Me and my husband had wanted to become parents after the 2008 Beijing Games but the Olympic competition took a lot out of me and I had to take care of my injured body," she said.
Slesarenko set a national record in 2004 when she won gold with a jump of 2.06m but only managed fourth in China at the last Olympics and admits she is slightly upset to miss out on the London Games.
"My good friend (2004 Olympic long jump champion) Tatyana Lebedeva, who was one of the first to get the news from me, had told me 'it's a luxury to become pregnant in the Olympic year because not every female athlete could afford it'," she added.
Comeback
"Probably, I would have liked to have it like this, compete in London, win the gold, then have a baby, then come back and start training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro."
However, despite missing this year's competition, Slesarenko is determined to make it to Brazil, looking to emulate compatriot Anna Chicherova who won her first global title in Daegu last year just months after giving birth.
"Her example motivates me," Slesarenko said.
"We know each other very well because we used to train in the same group and I know how happy Anna was to become a mother and it had given her extra strength and emotion to come back into the sport.
"I hope I can do the same."
