Odd Obsession

Mexico (or at least a part of it) has this weird crush on Yelena Isinbayeva. Who is Yelena you ask? She's a Russian pole vaulter who holds dozens of world records, and she dominated the airwaves throughout the Olympics last year. Seriously, she got ten times more face time than Lebron James. One broadcaster from TV Azteca (can't remember who, sorry) led the charge, hailing her beauty literally dozens if not hundreds of times during the Beijing games. 

Today, she was on the front page of Excélsior above the tagline, "The goddess falls", because she failed to win her event at the world championships. Mexico isn't a particularly track-obsessed country, nor is pole-vault a particularly prestigious sport within track and field, nor are the world championships the most important tournament in the sport. So how did a foreign, fringe-sport star wind up on the front page of a Mexican paper? I think Mexico's media is in love.