Paris Olympics: Gold and world record inevitable when Duplantis takes flight
After securing his Olympic crown nonchalantly, Mondo — with the 69,000-strong crowd and competitors cheering him on — breaks his own peak with a 6.25m-effort, proving yet again that he is in a league of his own
Gold medallist Armand Duplantis of Sweden vaults to a new world record of 6.25 metres.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis will later say he had been preparing for the moment all his life. “Back when I was just a kid jumping in my backyard in Louisiana, I’d think about this all the time. I’d imagine I was jumping for an Olympic gold and also the World record.”
Most kids have fantasies about era-defining sporting achievements. It doesn’t go much beyond that.
Not for Mondo. The 24-year-old will — in that order — win the Olympic gold medal, set the Olympic record and then break the World record.
Mondo already has the World record. He also has nine of the ten best vaults of all time. And he already has the Olympic gold medal. But that came in Tokyo — a competition Mondo will describe as the ‘high pressure practice session’.
It’s not what childhood fantasies are made of. Now, Monday evening at the Stade de Paris was another thing.
When he had the height of the pole vault bar set at 6.25m — 1cm more than his own World record — he had the entire crowd of 69,000 cheering him on.
With his first vault on Monday evening, Duplantis officially registered a mark in the men’s pole vault competition. With his third, he placed himself on the podium. With his fourth, he had won an Olympic gold medal. With his fifth he broke the Olympic record, clearing 6.10m. For his sixth vault, he had the bar set at 6.25m, a new World record.
These six vaults were spread out over three hours. The rest of his competitors had been fighting their own battles. They had bunched up at 5.85m, trying desperately to break through into the 5.90m medal zone. While all this happened, Mondo, a solitary figure in a bright yellow Swedish jersey, just sat and observed what was going on. Mondo knew his fight would come later. It wasn’t with anyone else. It was with himself.
Calculating correctly
He missed his first attempt at 6.25m. In his second, he seemed to have got the height right but not the distance — he landed almost on top of the bar rather than going over it. He did the calculations and discussed it with his coach in the stands. If Mondo was getting the height but not the horizontal distance in his jump, the solution was to bring the bar closer to him.
Now, he had the uprights that hold the bar in place. He moved forward horizontally, reducing the distance between him and the line where he put the pole into the ground from 70cm to 62cm. His coach had wanted the bar brought even closer to 60cm from the line.
If the adjustment was not right, Mondo would have landed on the bar yet again. But this is an athlete in supreme control of his body. So, 8cm it was.
His rivals might have been hyping up the crowd but as Mondo lifted his pole up at the start of his run up, the crowd went silent. Then, as he sprinted down the track, the stadium groaned in anticipation with each step.
As Mondo sprints down the runway, it indeed feels like he has God’s hand behind him. He bends the pole and goes upside down as it thrusts him skyward. The fact that the uprights are 8cm closer to him means that when he bends his body, it curls perfectly over the bar. What seems like an eternity later, he starts his descent.
The crowd is already going wild. ‘Record du Mond’ (record of the world) goes a sign on the big screen at the stadium. You can’t help but wonder at how perfect a nickname ‘Mondo’ chose for this moment.
Mondo jumps up from the foam pit and runs towards the photographers. He makes the pistol finger — a call back to the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec whose shooting style became viral in the first week of the Olympics.
Mondo has his own viral moment later. He has his childhood fantasy accomplished. “If I go my entire life and never have another moment like this, I’ll be happy,” he said.
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athletics, track and field