Mondo Duplantis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Mattia Ozbot)
Mondo Duplantis, named as the men’s field athlete of the year at the World Athletics Awards 2024, has further adorned his status as the greatest male pole vaulter with another year of dizzying achievement.
After retaining his world indoor title in Glasgow, the Swedish phenomenon – who only turned 25 on 10 November – went on to tick all the boxes as he set three more world records, bringing his total to 10.
The first came at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on 20 April, when he cleared 6.24m. Next came the ultimate athletic experience as he retained his Olympic title with a clearance of 6.25m in a packed Stade de France in which he was not only the last man standing in his event, but the last athlete competing on the night.
Twenty days later, at the Silesia Diamond League meeting, he added a further centimetre to his best mark.
Duplantis also retained his European title in Rome thanks to a championship record of 6.10m.
And he also found time to win a personal 100m challenge with Norway’s world 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm in a race that took place during the Zurich Diamond League meeting. Duplantis clocked 10.37 – underlining the speed he has on tap to convert into height…
In a recorded message played at the Theatre Princess Grace when his latest award was announced, Duplantis – who was training in the United States – paid tribute to his mother Helena, a former heptathlete and volleyball player, and his father Greg, a former pole vaulter with a best of 5.80m.
“This is always special and hard to wrap my head around,” he said. “I am very appreciative. There is nothing more important than an Olympic year for us athletes, so I’m grateful things worked out the way they did and I performed the way I did.
“I can’t give enough thanks to my family who are my team – my mum and dad are my trainer and technical coach. I couldn’t be in the situation I’m in today without them, fighting for world and Olympic gold medals and doing other things I’ve dreamed of since I was a little kid.
“Right now I’m back here in the United States working for next year.
“Thanks so much – this award truly means so much to me and my family.”
Mondo Duplantis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
Duplantis’s 2024 in numbers
After retaining your Olympic title at the Paris 2024 Games in front of a huge crowd in the Stade de France, you raised your world record by a centimetre when you cleared 6.25m on your third attempt. How did that feel to you?
"It was one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience. I had just broken a world record at the Olympics – the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter.
“The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’d been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of."
You have now set 10 consecutive world pole vault records. Did you feel something of this kind might happen once you had set your first one when you cleared 6.17m in Torun in February 2020, then 6.18m a week later in Glasgow?
“It was very important to me to show that the first world record wasn’t a fluke. It was like ‘This was what’s to come. This is what I am, this is the level I am competing at’. I didn’t just happen to get over the 6.17m.
“I wanted to show that I could do the next one, and do it even easier than the first one.”
Your most recent world record, set in Silesia, was 6.26m. You’ll never guess this question. Oh yes you will. How much higher can you go?
“I’ve said numerous times that I want to jump over 6.30m. Because I think that’s very possible and it just seems like the next real barrier to get over for pole vaulters in general.
“It’s something that can happen when everything just comes together in the right way, but I don’t think about it so much, honestly. I think I will just let it come, and it will just come.”
Mondo Duplantis in Continental Tour Gold action (© Sona Maleterova)
You tend to have seven or eight poles in your bag. How does this number work for you?
“I am always trying to use stiffer and stronger poles. If I can put more energy into a stiffer pole it is going to fling me up higher. It’s going to catapult me up there.
“I’m always trying to improve that aspect and to use different poles. There always seems to be a pole for the year – one I did my good jumps on.”
Mondo Duplantis at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne (© AFP / Getty Images)
Reflecting on your 10th and most recent world record, the 6.26m you cleared at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia on 25 August, how close to the perfect jump did it feel?
“My first world record also came in Poland, indoors in Torun, so I had great memories from there. The track was wonderful, the conditions were perfect, everything just came together to allow me to do it.
“It is just about being in good shape and believing you can do it. I always want to jump as high as I possibly can and to keep pushing. But I have never hit a jump that felt absolutely perfect, so I always feel like I can do better.”
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
