Isinbayeva condemns homosexuality
16 Aug 2013 6:02 AM IST
Pole vault great Yelena Isinbayeva condemned homosexuality Thursday after criticizing fellow competitors who painted their fingernails in rainbow colors to support gays and lesbians in the face of a new anti-gay law in Russia.
The Russian, who won her third world title Tuesday in front of a boisterous home crowd, came out in favor of the law which has drawn sharp criticism and led Western activists to call for a boycott of next year’s Winter Olympics in the Russian resort of Sochi.
‘If we allow to promote and do all this stuff on the street, we are very afraid about our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people. We just live with boys with woman, woman with boys,’ Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic champion, said.
‘Everything must be fine. It comes from history. We never had any problems, these problems in Russia, and we don’t want to have any in the future.’
At least two Swedish athletes competed Thursday at Luzhniki Stadium, the same venue that hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, with their fingernails painted different colors.
Emma Green Tregaro, who won a bronze medal at the 2005 worlds, posted a picture of her fingers on social media site Instagram, saying ‘Nails painted in the colors of the rainbow.’ She followed that with several hashtags, including ‘(hash)pride’ and ‘(hash)moscow 2013.’ ‘The first thing that happened when I came to Moscow and pulled my curtains aside was that I saw the rainbow and that felt a little ironic,’ Green Tregaro said in a video posted on the website of Swedish newspaper Expressen. ‘Then I had a suggestion from a friend on Instagram that maybe I could paint my nails in the colors of the rainbow and that felt like a simple, small thing that maybe could trigger some thoughts.’
The Russian, who won her third world title Tuesday in front of a boisterous home crowd, came out in favor of the law which has drawn sharp criticism and led Western activists to call for a boycott of next year’s Winter Olympics in the Russian resort of Sochi.
‘If we allow to promote and do all this stuff on the street, we are very afraid about our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people. We just live with boys with woman, woman with boys,’ Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic champion, said.
‘Everything must be fine. It comes from history. We never had any problems, these problems in Russia, and we don’t want to have any in the future.’
At least two Swedish athletes competed Thursday at Luzhniki Stadium, the same venue that hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, with their fingernails painted different colors.
Emma Green Tregaro, who won a bronze medal at the 2005 worlds, posted a picture of her fingers on social media site Instagram, saying ‘Nails painted in the colors of the rainbow.’ She followed that with several hashtags, including ‘(hash)pride’ and ‘(hash)moscow 2013.’ ‘The first thing that happened when I came to Moscow and pulled my curtains aside was that I saw the rainbow and that felt a little ironic,’ Green Tregaro said in a video posted on the website of Swedish newspaper Expressen. ‘Then I had a suggestion from a friend on Instagram that maybe I could paint my nails in the colors of the rainbow and that felt like a simple, small thing that maybe could trigger some thoughts.’
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