Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis retained his Olympic pole vault title with ludicrous ease Monday, needing only four successful attempts to take gold with 6 meters (19.7 feet), then capped a memorable night by beating his own world record with a clearance of 6.25 (20.5 feet).
Duplantis, one of the hottest favorites of the athletics program, went above and beyond to the crowd’s delight.
Having seen off silver medalist American Sam Kendricks and Greece’s bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis for the gold, he duly knocked off 6.10 meters in the first attempt to overhaul Thiago Braz’s Olympic record 6.03 from the 2016 Rio Games.
With all other events finished, the capacity Stade de France crowd then focused fully on Duplantis’ bright yellow shirt and neon pink-lit pole frame as he tried to beat the world record of 6.24, he set in April.
The first two attempts were close, but he slipped over and around the bar with incredible athleticism on the third, bringing a deafening roar from the 69,000 fans who had stayed to witness athletics history.
Still only 24, Duplantis is the world record holder, double Olympic, double world, triple European and double indoor world champion.
“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,” he said. “It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience.
“It’s 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’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.
“I felt really prepared. I’ve never been so locked in my life than in these past three months. Now I’m just ready to eat a bunch of food. The party is going to be pretty big.”
Ultimate target
Around three hours earlier, the pole vault had been something of a sideshow to the track action as Duplantis entered the fray at 5.70 and promptly cleared it by about a meter (3 feet).
He sat out 5.80 before flying easily over 5.85, as others all around him were starting to fall by the wayside.
He then cleared 6.00 – the ultimate target for most vaulters – as if he was warming up, and that was all he needed.
Kendricks, the 2017 and 2019 world champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, missed the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID following his arrival and spoke this week about the turmoil he suffered as brands considered him “damaged goods.”
The pent-up emotion exploded when he equaled his season’s best of 5.95 but he could not get over 6.00 with three attempts, leaving Duplantis as the winner on that height, without a fail.
Karalis, 24, cleared his personal best of 5.93 this season and was delighted to get over 5.90. His attempts at 5.95 and 6.00 never looked convincing but he was delighted with his bronze having finished joint-fourth in Tokyo.
It was Greece’s fourth bronze in the event but first since 1956, after a shared bronze in the first Games of 1896, when the winning height was 3.30 meters (10.8 feet).
