Sweden’s Armand Duplantis cemented his place in pole vault history by defending his Olympic crown in world record style on Monday to underline his utter dominance in the discipline.
The 24-year-old US-born prodigy, often described as an athletics rock star by World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, set a new world record of 6.25m as he claimed a second gold.
It was the first time in 68 years, since Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956, that a vaulter won back-to-back titles.
Duplantis has been virtually unbeatable over the past five years, winning every major title in the sport after being beaten at the 2019 worlds in Doha by American Sam Kendricks, who took silver on Monday.
Duplantis won Olympic gold in Tokyo three years ago before winning back-to-back World Outdoor Championships in 2022 and 2023. He added two world indoor crowns in 2022 and 2024 as well as three straight European titles in 2018, 2022 and 2024.
He is not immune to setting world records at the world championships, and Paris was the third time. It was also his ninth advancement in the mark.
He broke the record twice in 2020, three times in 2022, twice in 2023 and for the first time this April at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting.
Duplantis said you get used to the pressure of being the man everyone wants to beat.
“Every competition I go to, I’m going to be a big favorite. That’s the way it is. The reason is that I’ve been showing it as well,” he said.
“I go to every competition and try to jump as high as I can. I think it should be enough to do what I know I can do. You get used to it and you can control it.”
Trained by his American father Greg, a former pole vaulter, Duplantis is the product of a running family that had its own vaulting machine in the backyard, although he insists he was no “lab rat”.
“I started pole vaulting when I was about four years old,” Duplantis said.
The six-time Louisiana state champion, who spent the summer with his Swedish maternal grandparents in Sweden, added, “When you have a pole vault in your backyard, you try it.
“I fell in love with pole vaulting at a young age and stuck with it.
Duplantis already surpassed his father’s personal best at the age of 17.
He announced his prodigious talent to a wider audience when he won the 2018 European outdoor title in Berlin with a jump of 6.05m, a world junior record.
Since then, apart from a “blip” in Qatar, it’s been a bed of roses for Duplantis, whose world record is now a massive 9cm further than the previous top jumper, France’s Renaud Lavillenie.
The only competitor to break the 6-meter barrier is the American Chris Nilsen in Eugene in February. He was absent in Paris and his closest rival was Kendricks with 5.95 m.
Such is his dominance, Duplantis often enters the contest when half the field is already bombed.
He is then left in his element, rousing the public to a roar of support as he first achieves victory and then raises the bar for a world record attempt. So it was at a packed Stade de France where Duplantis played his part to perfection in a performance that could not have been better scripted.
