LSU's Mondo Duplantis wins Gold, sets Olympics record in Paris
The Paris Olympics brought another Gold medal in pole vaulting to Mondo Duplantis, and the former LSU star and Louisiana native made the most of it.
For the ninth time in his young career, the 24-year old set a world record when he cleared 6.25 meters in the pole vault finals.
Duplantis was the lone competitor to clear 6.00m, and he quickly set the Olympics record when he moved the bar to 6.10m, besting the 6.03m mark set by Thiago Braz at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
From there, Duplantis moved the bar to 6.25m, giving him a chance to break his own world record set at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting in Xiamen when he cleared 6.24m.
On his third attempt, Duplantis cleared the 6.25m bar to give him another world record – while blowing away the prior Olympics record of 6.03m. Duplantis previously won Gold in Tokyo in 2021 with a jump of 6.02m.
Duplantis entered the 2024 Olympics holding world records in both the indoor (6.22 meters) and outdoor (6.24 meters) pole vault events. In 2022, Duplantis was crowned both European and World Male Athlete of the Year.
Duplantis was born in Lafayette, La., before attending LSU, where he became first collegian to ever clear 6.00m with his showing at the SEC Outdoor Championships in 2019. Duplantis also became the first collegiate athlete in NCAA history to have four clearances of 5.83m or better during indoors competition.
While Duplantis is a Louisiana native and is the son of two former LSU student-athletes, he has dual-citenzship in both the USA and Sweden given his mother was born in Sweden, which allowed him to compete for Sweden and begin his pole vaulting career at a younger age as a result of fewer age restrictions in Sweden compared to the USA.
His father, Greg Duplantis, was also given the opportunity to coach his son Swedish team, while the USA reportedly did not offer the same role. Team USA also relies on Olympic trials for qualification, while Sweden takes in the overall records of athletes across their years of competition.
