Russia's heroine Yelena Isinbayeva condemns support for gays
Russia's heroine says she is for controversial law against homosexuals
The face of the world championships, Yelena Isinbayeva, has condemned Swede Emma Green-Tregaro's gesture of support for the Russian gay community as disrespectful and said she supported the law banning the promotion of homosexuality.
Green-Tregaro competed in yesterday's qualifying round of the high jump at Luzhniki Stadium with her fingernails painted in the colours of the rainbow flag used by the gay movement.
"It's disrespectful to our country, disrespectful to our citizens because we are Russians," Isinbayeva said.
"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 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," added the 31-year-old, who is one of Russia's best known athletes and won her third world title in front of an enthralled home crowd on Tuesday.