Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis will later say he had been preparing for the moment all his life. “Back when I was just a kid jumping in my backyard in Louisiana, I’d think about this all the time. I’d imagine I was jumping for an Olympic gold and also the world record,” he’d say.
Most kids have fantasies about era-defining sporting achievements. It doesn’t go much beyond that.
Not for Mondo. The 24-year-old will – in that order – win the Olympic gold medal, set the Olympic record and then break the world record.
Mondo already has the world record. He also has nine of the ten best vaults of all time. And he already has the Olympic gold medal. But that came in Tokyo – a competition Mondo will describe as the ‘high pressure practise session.’
It’s not what childhood fantasies are made of. Now, Monday evening at the Stade de France was another thing.
When he had the height of the pole vault bar set at 6.25m – 1cm more than his own world record – he had the entire crowd of 69,000 cheering him on. The King of Sweden is there as is other royalty – think Sergey Bubka whose tapes Mondo would watch obsessively as a kid.
The adoration of the crowd was anyway a given. He also had his competitors, those who might have once wanted to beat him, asking the crowd to get even more behind him than it already was.
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What sets the pole vault (and also the high jump) apart from other athletics events is that spectators know, even before the task is accomplished, just what is being attempted. It builds up drama like no other track or field event.
No one does suspense like Mondo. No one seems to do pole vault like him either.
Ryan Crouser has Joe Kovacs pushing him all the way in the men’s shot put. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has Femke Bol in her rear view mirror in the women’s 400m hurdles. Noah Lyles might call himself the ‘fastest man in the world’ but the gap between him and last place in the men’s 100m sprint at the Stade de Paris was just 0.12 seconds.
Mondo is in a league of his own.
With his first vault on Monday evening, Mondo officially registered a mark in the men’s pole vault competition. With his third, he placed himself on the podium. With his fourth, he had won an Olympic gold medal. With his fifth he broke the Olympic record, clearing 6.10m. For his sixth vault, he had the bar set at 6.25m, a new world record.
These six vaults were spread out over three hours. The rest of his competitors had been fighting their own battles. They had bunched up at 5.85m trying desperately to break through into the 5.90m medal zone. While all this happened, Mondo, a solitary figure in a bright yellow Swedish jersey, just sat and observed what was going on. They could squabble amongst themselves for silver and bronze. He’d clap supportively at their attempts and watch the other races taking place on the purple track around him.
Mondo knew his fight would come later. It wasn’t with anyone else. It was with himself.
He missed his first attempt at 6.25m. In his second, he seemed to have got the height right but not the distance – he landed almost on top of the bar rather than going over it. He did the calculations and discussed it with his coach in the stands. If Mondo was getting the height but not the horizontal distance in his jump, the solution was to bring the bar closer to him.
Now, he had the uprights that hold the bar in place. He moved forward horizontally, reducing the distance between him and the line where he put the pole into the ground from 70cm to 62cm. His coach had wanted the bar brought even closer to 60cm from the line.
If the adjustment was not right, Mondo would have landed on the bar yet again. But this is an athlete in supreme control of his body. So, 8cm it was.
“One, he’s has got a great coach for a long time and he’s been training for a long time. He’s got great equipment and understanding of the event. He’s a fan of the sport. And (four) he’s got God’s hand on his back.””USA’s Sam Kendricks on what makes Duplantis special
Those 8cm would be the difference between an already great day with one that would become one of those defining Olympic moments that come just a few times in each generation.
His competitors might have been hyping up the crowd but as Mondo lifted his pole up at the start of his run up, the crowd went silent. Then, as he sprinted down the track, the stadium groaned in anticipation with each step.
Sam Kendricks, the two-time World champion, who also took silver in Paris, will later be asked what makes Mondo special. There are four factors Kendricks will say.
“One, he’s got a great coach for a long time and he’s been training for a long time. He’s got great equipment and understanding of the event. He’s a fan of the sport. And (four) he’s got God’s hand on his back,” Kendricks will say.
The American is referring to Mondo’s incredible speed down the runway that allows him to put more energy into the pole than all of his competitors. But he may as well be referring to that mysterious force that separates the legendary athletes from even the great ones.
As Mondo sprints down the runway, it indeed feels like he has God’s hand behind him. He bends the pole and goes upside down as it thrusts him skyward. The fact that the uprights are 8cm closer to him means that when he bends his body, it curls perfectly over the bar. What seems like an eternity later, he starts his descent.
The crowd is already going wild. ‘Record du Monde’ (record of the world) goes a sign on the big screen at the stadium. You can’t help but wonder at how perfect a nickname ‘Mondo’ chose for this moment.
Mondo jumps up from the foam pit and runs towards the photographers. He makes the pistol finger – a call back to the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec whose raw dog shooting style became viral in the first week of the Olympics.
Mondo has his own viral moment himself. He has his childhood fantasy accomplished. “If I go my entire life and never have another moment like this, I’ll be happy,” he says.
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