Duplantis, widely known by his nickname ‘Mondo’, has already won every major gold available to him, and became the first man in 68 years to retain the Olympic pole vault title at Paris 2024.
The US-born Swede, who chose to represent his mother’s homeland, has not lost a major final since the World Athletics Championship in Doha in 2019, where as a teenager he missed out to American Sam Kendricks on countback.
World record talk has largely replaced any discussion of the destination of men’s pole vault gold medals since he took the record off Lavillenie in February 2020.
How has he done it? A potent combination of lightning runway speed, technical precision in the take-off, explosive power and the bravery to embrace it as he travels far beyond the average height of a giraffe (5.5m).
It is his sprinting prowess in particular that his rivals pinpoint as a defining factor, with the higher approach speed generating greater kinetic energy and creating the foundation for greater heights.
That is something he has enhanced through specially-developed sprinting spikes which he wears for his world record attempts, which feature an unusual hooked spike in the forefoot.
His incremental centimetre-by-centimetre approach to improving the world record is by no means revolutionary; since Sergey Bubka became the first person to clear six metres 40 years ago, the record has been nudged no more than two centimetres higher at a time.
It helped that Duplantis grew up with a pole vault pit in the back garden of his childhood home in Louisiana, with his father a former elite competitor in the discipline.
The record-breaking dominance he has gone on to achieve has transcended the sport and established Duplantis – coached by his parents Greg and Helena – as the sport’s biggest star.
