page_title: 2013 World Championships in Athletics
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: 2013 World Championships in Athletics / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La russe Elena Isinbaeva médaille de bronze olympique du saut à la perche à Londres 2012
context_page_description: The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10–18 August 2013. Initially, Russia won the most gold medals to top the table for the first time since 2001. It was also the first time ever the host nation took the top of the medal table. However, after disqualification of Russian sprinter Antonina Krivoshapka for doping and following redistribution of medals in the Women's 4 × 400 metres relay, United States topped the medal table with eight golds. In the overall medal count, the United States won 26 medals in total, followed by Kenya with 12. With 1,784 athletes from 203 countries it was the biggest single sports event of the year. The number of spectators for the evening sessions was 268,548 surpassing Daegu 2011.
  Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce both won three gold medals in the men's and women's 100 metres, 200 metres and 4×100 metres relay respectively to become the most successful athletes at the event. This achievement also earned Bolt the title of being the most successful athlete in the history of the World Championships with eight gold and two silver medals.
context_section_description: The introduction of a Russia federal law in June banning "homosexual propaganda" affected the championships hosted in Moscow. Western and international bodies had already condemned the move prior to the event, which was scheduled several months prior to the more prominent 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The IAAF deputy secretary general, Nick Davies, stated that the international nature of the competition might alter the country's perspective, but that the matter of gay rights would not be addressed by the championships, as long as its athletes were unaffected. Russian politician Vitaly Milonov had stated that the law would apply to athletes and tourists in the same way as Russian citizens. He also said those suggesting a boycott of the championships in protest of the laws were merely avoiding their competitors, saying "sports competitions are a place where there can't be any politics".
  Several athletes voiced their concerns over the issue of gay rights in Russia, but none boycotted the event. American runner Nick Symmonds, a supporter of the NOH8 Campaign for equal rights, said he would respect the host nation and its laws and would focus on sporting competition only in Moscow. However, he maintained his position as an advocate of gay rights and would silently dedicate his performance "to my gay and lesbian friends back home".
  Two Swedish athletes, high jumper Emma Green Tregaro and sprinter Moa Hjelmer, attracted attention when they painted their nails in a rainbow pattern in support of gay rights and displayed the colours during the qualifying rounds. The IAAF notified the Swedish Athletics Federation that this gesture was in breach of rules on athlete conduct. The Swedish officials stood by Green Tregaro, but she relented under the pressure – in the high jump finals, she sported all red nails as a symbol of love. While watching the high jump finals, Paavo Arhinmäki, the Finnish Minister for Culture and Sport, waved a rainbow flag at the arena. Hjelmer had been eliminated in the first round of the 200 metres and did not compete again at the championships.
  Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva was a popular winner in the women's pole vault, but later drew controversy for her remarks criticizing Green Tregaro's nails. She said the protests were disrespectful towards the host nation and commented in English: "We consider ourselves like normal, standard people, we just live boys with women, girls with boys...We have our law which everyone has to respect. When we go to different countries, we try to follow their rules." Following the negative reactions from other athletes and Western media she said that she had been misunderstood due to her grasp of English: "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)."
  During the medal ceremony for the women's 4×400 metres relay images of Kseniya Ryzhova and Yuliya Gushchina sharing a kiss on the lips spread through social media and were interpreted as a protest against the anti-gay laws. Both Ryzhova and Gushchina denied any intention to make such a protest, rather they were simply happy with their athletic success, and stated that they were married to men. Although reports were principally focused on the pair, all four of the Russia relay runners briefly kissed each other on the podium. Ryzhova described her assumed connection to LGBT as insulting. The Russian Minister for Sport, Vitaly Mutko, said that Western media had over-emphasised the issue, noting that same-sex relations are not illegal in Russia and sparser coverage of the issue in domestic media.
caption: Yelena Isinbayeva's (RUS) who caused controversy
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Ver.1.03", "Image DateTime": "2012:08:06 22:50:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2266", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "37970", "Image XPComment": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "4168", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:08:06 22:50:17", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:08:06 22:50:17", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "2/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "43", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "43", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "43", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4288", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "2022"}