Although he is only 24, Armand Duplantis, better known as Mondo Duplantis, is already a world champion, Olympic champion and world record holder. He has taken pole vaulting to new heights and has attained God-like status in the world of athletics.

Sporting roots and early glory

Born in Louisiana in 1999 to an American pole vaulter father and Swedish long jumper mother, Duplantis opted to compete internationally for his mother's nation. In 2015, still only four months shy of his 16th birthday, he clinched the u-18 title, and then two years later, broke the u-20 world record with a clearance of 5.90m.

In 2018, he got the European Championships gold, where he cleared 6.05m, which also made him the fifth-best vaulter of all time. Then at the 2019 Worlds in Doha, he got silver.

During the World Athletics Indoor Tour, he cleared three lower heights, before going past 6.17m in the second attempt. A week later, he added another centimetre. At the Tokyo Olympics, he got gold, clearing a height of 6.02m on his first effort, and got very close to beating his own world record.

Pre-Paris Olympics form

In March 2022, he beat his own world record by jumping 6.19m at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, and then two weeks later at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor C'ships in Belgrade, he got gold, breaking his world record yet again by jumping 6.20m. In June 2022, he broke his own outdoor world best of 6.15m, by jumping 6.16m. He broke his own world record yet again at the 2022 Eugene World Athletics C'ships, by going past 6.21m.

At the 2024 World Athletics Indoor C'ships in Glasgow in March, he made a vault of 6.05m, winning gold. Then in April at the 2024 Diamond League, he improved his world record by one centimeter, clearing 6.24m. He won the 2024 European C'ships in Rome in June, setting a new European C'ships record of 6.10m on his first attempt, before failing in his three attempts to break the world record.

What did he say?

Speaking after the Paris Diamond League, he said, "I like where things are at and I know that I can be just even that much a little better for the Olympics in a month."

Asked if the windy weather was a factor he said, "I just probably needed a tiny bit more grip a little bit more depth. It's very difficult and it demands for me to be pretty much perfect to make a world record."

"I'm going to go back to Stockholm and do some training and then if I'm able to take care of business and win the Olympics in a month then it's going to be a lot of wine and all that good stuff that you can get here in Paris," he added.

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