Isinbayeva named mayor of a Sochi Olympic Village

Moscow, Dec 15 (IANS/RIA Novosti):

World-record pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva is to be the mayor of one of the two villages for the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics, organising committee head Dmitry Chernyshenko has said.

Two villages will be built for the first winter Games in Russia, one in the Imeretin Valley by the Black Sea and the other on the slopes of the Aibga mountain chain.

“We have chosen Yelena as the mayor of the coastal village,” Chernyshenko said Friday.

“Later, we will announce who will be the mayor of the mountain village.”

The post is purely symbolic and means Isinbayeva will meet and greet athletes during the Games.

The coastal village will hold 2,200 athletes from the five ice sports played at the Olympic Park arenas.

Both villages are under construction and should be finished by the end of next summer.

Isinbayeva, 30, won gold at the Athens and Beijing Games but failed to defend her title in London after finishing third behind Jennifer Suhr of the United States and Cuba’s Yarisley Silva.