The greatest pole vaulter of all-time continues to add to his resume.
Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won the gold medal in Monday’s men’s pole vault final at the Paris Olympics. Insanely enough though, the gold medal was not even the most impressive part of the day for Duplantis. After already clinching the gold, Duplantis went for a new world record by attempting to clear a bar set at a height of 6.25 meters (20 feet, 5.5 inches). With the crowd at the Stade de France stadium buzzing, Duplantis gave it a go … and he got it.
Check out the awesome video of Duplantis breaking the world record and then running over to celebrate with his loved ones.
MONDO DUPLANTIS ENDS THE NIGHT WITH A NEW WORLD RECORD. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/0egeRdxphW
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 5, 2024
Duplantis, still only 24, was already the world record holder, first setting it in 2020 at 6.17 meters. Since then, Duplantis has broken his own world record eight different times and entered competition at the Paris Games with nine of the top 10 pole vaults of all-time. Most recently before Paris, Duplantis cleared 6.24 meters at the 2024 Diamond League in April.
Mondo Duplantis is MY goat. pic.twitter.com/YCxhked1SK
— Brett Hanfling (@Brett_Hanfling) August 5, 2024
But setting a new world record at the Olympics is an entirely different ballgame. The previous record during Olympic competition was held by Brazilian pole vaulter Thiago Braz, who cleared 6.03 meters at the 2016 Rio Games. With Duplantis going all the way up to 6.25 meters on Monday in Paris, it is just the third time that the pole vault world record has been broken at the Olympics and the first time since 1980.
Duplantis is now a back-to-back Olympic gold medalist (after winning at the 2020 Tokyo Games with a top vault of 6.02 meters) as well as a two-time World outdoor champion and a two-time World indoor champion too. His continued success is a welcome sight for the sport of pole vaulting, which had only made headlines prior to that at this year’s Olympics because of a funny competition mishap.
