Swedish star Mondo Duplantis soared 6.25m* to set the ninth world pole vault record of his career and cap a gold medal-winning performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Monday (5).
The 24-year-old has won every global men’s pole vault title since claiming his first Olympic crown in Tokyo three years ago. With this latest victory, he becomes only the second man to secure two pole vault golds at the Games, following the double achieved by USA’s Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
Duplantis had the competition won at 6.00m before he had the bar raised to 6.10m – a height that added 7cm to the Olympic record.
He cleared that on his first try but he wasn’t done there, and the bar went up to 6.25m – one centimetre higher than the world record of 6.24m he set in Xiamen in April.
After failing his first two attempts, he flew over the bar on his third and final try to make history yet again. Silver was claimed by USA’s Sam Kendricks with 5.95m, while an emotional Emmanouil Karalis of Greece got bronze with 5.90m.
I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,” Duplantis said later. “It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience.
“What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics – 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.”
After the rest of the field started at 5.50m, Duplantis opened his campaign at 5.70m and soared way clear. He passed at 5.80m and was back in action at 5.85m, which he managed with more than 20cm to spare.
His first-time clearance at that height was a feat matched by world indoor bronze medallist Karalis, Philippines’ world silver medallist Ernest John Obiena, Australia’s world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall and Ersu Sasma of Turkiye. Two-time world gold medallist Kendricks had one failed attempt at 5.85m and then decided to skip straight to 5.90m. It paid off as he made that on his first try and celebrated wildly.
Karalis, who was fourth at the Olympics in Tokyo, maintained his perfect record by clearing 5.90m on his first attempt and Obiena made it first time, too, but Sasma and Marschall knocked the bar and spent their remaining attempts trying to make it over 5.95m.
Kendricks then set a season’s best when he cleared 5.95m, on his first go. Taking just his third vault of the competition, Duplantis soared clear, too.
That height marked the end of the contest for Marschall, Sasma, Obiena and Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, the latter taking one attempt each at 5.85m, 5.90m and 5.95m.
After his one try at 5.95m, Karalis attempted 6.00m twice. Although he wasn’t successful, he had done enough to secure the bronze on countback ahead of Obiena.
Duplantis was confirmed the winner when Kendricks failed the last of his three attempts at the six-metre bar and he continued to put on a show for fans in the Stade de France and around the world.
“I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could,” said Duplantis, reflecting on the lead-up to his world record-breaking vault. “The crowd was going crazy. It was so loud in there, it sounded like an American football game. I have a little bit of experience of being in a 100,000-capacity stadium, but I was never the centre of attention. I was just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out.”
The two-time Olympic, two-time world indoor and two-time world outdoor champion has now cleared six metres or higher a total of 86 times.
In Paris, he topped a contest in which 11 men cleared 5.70m and it is only the second time at the Olympic Games in which that depth has been achieved.
It is also the second Olympics where eight men cleared 5.80m or higher, and the second Games where four men managed 5.90m or more.
USA’s Chris Nilsen claimed silver behind Duplantis in Tokyo but missed out on the final in Paris after failing to clear 5.60m in qualification. Home athletes Thibaut Collet and Anthony Ammirati were also among those who did not progress.