Mondo Duplantis makes history again by breaking the pole vault record for the 12th time. This win was his most memorable achievement because it was held in his home country, Sweden.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Duplantis cleared 6.28 meters (20 feet and 7 inches) on his first try at a Diamond League event in Stockholm. He surpassed his latest record of 6.27 meters, which he achieved in February at an indoor meet in France.
With this, Duplantis expressed: “The first time I jumped in this stadium when I was 11 years old, it was rainy, cold and I jumped right under four meters… It was quite high for how young I was.”
He added: “I kept saying that it was the only thing that I was missing in the accolades, I guess you could say, was to break a world record here in Sweden… I really wanted to do it so badly. I checked off pretty much everything now.”
The athlete was born and raised in Louisiana, but he represents Sweden, where his mom came from.
“It’s a magical feeling… I wanted this so bad. I wanted to do this in front of everybody here in Stockholm, all my Swedes,” he said.
Duplantis’ athletic performance
Mondo Duplantis has broken the pole vault world record 12 times, adding one centimeter each time since 2020.
The 25-year-old athlete previously broke the record twice in Poland, twice in Belgrade, Serbia, twice in Eugene, Oregon, once in Scotland and China, and three times in France, including the 2024 Paris Olympics. He followed the same record-breaking strategy of Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, who raised the pole vault world record by just one centimeter back in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Between 1984 and 1994, Bubka broke the outdoor pole vault world record 17 times, and the indoor world record 18 times. This happened before World Athletics combined indoor and outdoor records into a single world record. In his sporting career, Bubka set a total of 35 world records.
The world record before Duplantis was 6.16 meters set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.
In a social media post, the athlete shared his recent milestone with his fans with a caption: “It was a pleasant Sunday💙”
Netizens expressed their support to the athlete by commenting on the post: “What a legend! 🔥👏”, “Records are made to be broken by duplantis 🙌🔥”, “the best athlete in the history of athletics😍🔥💪🇸🇪”, “I feel like you always break this record”, “You are out of your mind!!!!! (translated)”, and “air duplantis goes higher and higher once again 🥲🐐”