Swede success sets high bar

Sweden's Armand Duplantis improved his own world record en route to retaining his Olympic pole vault title in Paris on Monday.

In a sensational finish to the fifth day of track and field at the Stade de France, Duplantis sailed over the bar, raised to 6.25 meters, to rapturous applause from a 69,000-capacity crowd.

It bettered by 1 cm his own previous best of 6.24m set at the Xiamen Diamond League meet in April.

Remarkably, it was the ninth time the US-born Swede has broken the record.

In the competition before the procession, American Sam Kendricks won silver with a best of 5.95m, and Greece's Emmanouil Karalis took bronze (5.90) on countback.

The gold meant Duplantis became the first man to retain the pole vault title since American Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.

It had been, he said, 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," said Duplantis.

"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."

As soon as he crashed down on the landing mat after his third and final successful attempt at 6.25m, Duplantis bounced away on the track to embrace family and friends in the stands.

Draped in the Swedish flag and with Abba's "Dancing Queen "booming around the stadium, Duplantis made an emotional lap of the track.

The music halted as he leaned down to ring the victory bell, capping yet another exceptional display from the irrepressible 24-year-old.

Competition opened amid perfect, balmy conditions with the bar at 5.50 meters. Duplantis skipped that, all of his 11 opponents opting, successfully, to make an attempt.

The Swede came in at 5.70m, sailing over with no problem. He skipped 5.80m, by which time four athletes had dropped out.

Field narrowed

Duplantis then cleared 5.85m in his second vault of the night by a considerable margin.

Kendricks followed suit, and the pair then went over at 5.95m.

That proved too much for the rest of the field, as Australian Kurtis Marschall, Turkiye's Ersu Sasma, Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines and Karalis all fell by the wayside.

Karalis took bronze on a 5.90m countback from Obiena, but passed on 5.95.

The bar was raised to 6.00m. First up was Kendricks, but he brought down the bar. Duplantis followed and made no mistake, to the delight of a raucous crowd at France's national stadium.

"Mondo (Duplantis) is an extraordinary jumper because of four factors," said Kendricks, who finished second. "One, he's had a great coach for a long time. He's had a lot of time to do it. He's got great equipment and understanding of the event.

"He's a fan of the sport, and he's got God's hand on his back."

Kendricks had two more failures, leaving just Duplantis in the competition.

The bar was immediately raised to 6.10m, which, again, posed no problem for the Swede.

Theater and dreams

When it comes to delivering great theater, Duplantis showed once again, that he is in a class of his own.

The crowd erupted as the in-track panels flashed up the next height: 6.25m, a world record mark.

His first effort was very close, catching the bar with his elbow.

Following his first miss, he used the break while Noah Lyles was receiving the gold medal for his 100-meter victory, to study video on a tablet with his parents, who met decades ago, while they were both on the LSU track and field team.

For his second attempt, Duplantis asked for the crowd, in unison, to perform the slow clap made famous by supporters of Iceland's football team.

Another miss ensued, then another long break.

There were no demands for the third, just total concentration.

The fans clapped in rhythm and sang along to the French song Alleur de Feu — Light the Fire — getting ready for Mondo's leap into history.

"I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could," Duplantis said.

"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 being in a 100,000-capacity stadium, but I was never the center 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."

As he accelerated down the runway, yellow pole held aloft, the crowd bayed. Successfully planted, the pole flexed and up shot Duplantis — body bending so his feet went up first — into the night air. The stadium held its breath, then came the explosion of noise delight at another world record and a second Olympic gold bagged in a memorable night's work.

"I felt very confident going into today," he said. "I really wasn't all that nervous. 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."

And indeed, the celebrations were not likely to end there.

"I started a tradition a few years ago, when Mondo became so hard to beat," said Kendricks. "The winner buys dinner. Mondo won by a lot tonight, so he's going to buy us dinner."

Duplantis added: "The party is going to be pretty big. Not that much sleep, a lot of partying, a good time."

Greatest ever?

By winning a second straight gold medal and breaking the record for the ninth time — each time by one centimeter — Duplantis is now next to, if not above, Sergei Bubka as the greatest ever in this event.

Duplantis is in the conversation alongside America's Ryan Crouser, a world-record holder and three-time gold medalist in shot put, when it comes to the most dominant athletes in their discipline.

A literal home-grown talent, Duplantis learned this sport on a pole vault pit his parents dug in their backyard in Lafayette, Louisiana.

During long afternoons of jumping in that pit, Duplantis often envisioned himself going for a world record on his last jump at the Olympics.

"For it to actually happen the way that it did, and for me to put the right jump together at the right time, it's bigger than words for me."

Agencies