Armand Duplantis: Two-time Olympic pole vault champion breaks world record at Mundo Classic in Sweden

Duplantis, widely known by his nickname “Mondo”, won every major gold medal available to him, becoming the first man in 68 years to retain the pole vault title at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The US-born Swede, who chose to represent his mother’s homeland, has not lost a major final since the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019, where he lost as a teenager to American Sam Kendricks on count-out.

Talk of the world record has supplanted any discussion of where the gold medals in the men’s pole vault will go since he took the record from Lavillenie in February 2020.

How did he do that? A powerful combination of lightning runway speed, technical precision in take-off, explosive power and courage in its embrace as it travels far beyond the average height of a giraffe (5.5 metres).

It is his running prowess in particular that his competitors identify as a defining factor, as a higher approach speed generates greater kinetic energy and creates the basis for greater heights.

This is something he has reinforced with the specially developed running spikes he wears in his world record attempts, which feature an unusual hooked height in the forefoot.

His gradual approach to improving the world record is by no means revolutionary; Since Sergei Bubka became the first person to clear six meters 40 years ago, the record has never been raised by more than two centimeters at a time.

It helped that Duplantis grew up in the pole vault pit in the backyard of his childhood home in Louisiana, with his father, a former elite competitor in the field.

The record-breaking dominance he went on to achieve went beyond the sport and made Duplantis — who is coached by his parents Greg and Helena — the biggest star in the sport.