Helena Duplantis and Trevor Painter share personal insights at Coaches’ Club in Tokyo

They may no longer compete, but they now win medals of a different kind.

Helena Duplantis and Trevor Painter are the coaches behind two of the most decorated athletes in recent years: Mondo Duplantis and Keely Hodgkinson.

Coaches, teachers, and sports decision-makers came together once again for the Coaches’ Club during the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25. The event allows the coaching community to learn in real time from the championship experience, gain insights from experts, and exchange ideas and experiences.

At the club, Helena and Trevor shared their personal perspectives, tips, and lessons from guiding elite athletes.

 

Helena Duplantis, the other side of world records

Helena Duplantis has supported Mondo Duplantis’s journey from his very first steps – first as a mother, and later as his coach.

She has been by his side from the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, when he claimed his first world pole vault title with 6.21m, to Tokyo, where he set his 14th world record at 6.30m.

“You can tell the world about your aspirations and goals, even if they sound a little out of the box,” said Duplantis, reflecting on what she has learned from coaching her son over the years.

She grew up in Sweden in an environment where everyone was expected to blend in. Standing out or showing confidence sometimes felt out of place. She describes this mind-set with the Swedish word ‘lagom’: not too much, not too little.

“Being average is not good enough and you can be vocal about it,” says the former heptathlete, who represented Sweden at the international level.

Mondo, the two-time Olympic pole vault champion, grew up in Louisiana, where Helena had moved at 20 to study at the State University. There she met pole vaulter Greg Duplantis, who later became her husband.

Both former athletes, Helena and her husband Greg were determined not to repeat the mistakes of their own careers when guiding their son.

“I was built pretty thin, and our coach wanted us to bulk up,” recalls Helena. “I was doing low-intensity but high-volume workouts.” Those experiences shaped the careful, individualised approach she has applied with Mondo.

The mother-of-four offered another simple insight into their training philosophy: “Don’t make it more difficult than it already is”.

Greg’s belief is that physical conditioning alone isn’t enough; in pole vault, technical work must progress alongside strength and speed because the event is so unique.

“The stronger and faster you get, the more your pole selection changes,” explains Helena. “You can’t just show up after two months without vaulting.”

The pair, who have nurtured a record-breaking athlete redefining the limits of his discipline, have also guided other vaulters. “You really have to have the drive to want it. I don’t always see that in others. When they don’t jump well, it doesn’t seem to affect them as much.”

That principle is captured in one of Helena’s favourite sayings: ‘If losing doesn’t hurt, winning doesn’t matter’.

“He absolutely hates to lose and loves to compete, no matter what it is,” Helena says of Mondo, who seemingly thrives under pressure. But reaching the top requires more than just competitiveness.

“In pole vault, you have to be fearless and confident,” she says, stressing the importance of overcoming the fear of planting the pole. “You have to select the right pole for the right height and conditions, and be fully confident in it.”

Helena has been by her son’s side from his first steps right up to his winning vault in Tokyo, where he broke the world record for the 14th time with a clearance of 6.30m. But Helena’s guidance goes beyond technique; she has also instilled values that transcend sport.

“Respect for competitors, coaches, and officials,” she says. “It’s important to just be a good person.”

 

Painter: not a double threshold group

The 2024 season was the most successful of Trevor Painter's coaching career.

Three of his athletes won medals at the Paris Olympics – Keely Hodgkinson took gold in the 800m, Georgia Bell placed third in the 1500m, and Lewis Davey earned bronze as part of the men's 4x400m team – but success didn't come overnight.

“I’ve spent the past 25 years learning what works and what doesn’t in training,” says Painter. “But most of all, I’ve learned that you have to get to know the individual well, because one approach doesn’t work for everyone. A big part of my coaching philosophy is to be as close to the athlete as possible, to know what they are going through in life outside the track.”

Painter, a former rugby player, first coached his wife, Jenny Meadows, the 2009 world 800m bronze medallist. Today they jointly run the M11 Track Club, a professional athletics group based in Manchester, UK.

Painter emphasises the importance of speed in middle-distance running. “We are definitely not a double threshold group,” he said, referring to one of the most widely used training systems in the world of endurance sports. “When Keely joined our group, she could run around 57 seconds in the 400m. I told her: If you want to make it at the international senior level, we must improve that. She is currently at 51.61.”

When asked what he considers the basics of the 800m run, Painter immediately answered ‘technique’. “If you are not efficient while you run, it’s going to be very difficult to achieve the results you want. That’s why we do a lot of core work and functional training extra to the running,” he explained, adding that his training system is reminiscent of the five-pace method used by Peter Coe, father and coach to World Athletics President and two-time Olympic champion Sebastian Coe.

“It’s similar,” says Painter. “We do four paces – 400m/800m/3000m/5000m – during winter and 200m/400m/800m/3000m in the summer.”

This season was challenging for him, as Hodgkinson was injured three times, something that had never happened before. “It’s a difficult situation for a coach. You suffer as well. You know that you’ll have to change all the plans, but you cannot dwell on it, you cannot be down and depressed. You need to lift the athlete up.”

Painter highlighted that the most important thing in such situations is to “keep rationality in check. Injured athletes really get irrational and from that point things might spiral down if you don’t react.”

Painter – World Athletics’ Coaching Achievement Award winner in 2024 – also spoke about creating social media content during training sessions. “Keely works with a blogger who manages her social-media content,” he said. “I know she needs and wants to, but as a coach I don’t want to spend too much time creating social media content during sessions. The best thing is when it happens naturally.

“Kids love that side of track and field and our team has a budget to do it,” he added. “I don’t have anything against it, but it’s better to do it during training camps and not before important competitions.”

Andjela Cegar and Lucijan Zalokar for World Athletics