 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Sweden's Armand Duplantis brought spectators at the Stade de France to their feet as he became only the second athlete to defend the Olympics pole vault gold medal at the Paris Games on Monday.
Along with the gold, Duplantis set a new World record of 6.25m, for the ninth time in his illustrious career.
He is the first athlete to retain the pole vault title in nearly seven decades, since American Bob Richards first achieved the feat in 1952 and 1956.
Still only 24, American-born Duplantis is the World record holder, double Olympic, double world, triple European and double indoor World champion.
The Swedish-American athlete had a remarkable night, clearing 6.00 metres with ease before surpassing his previous world record of 6.24 metres by one centimetre on his third and final attempt.
He began his winning sequence at 5.70 metres, skipped 5.80 metres, cleared 5.85 metres on his first attempt, and then soared over 6.00 metres. He broke the Olympic record of 6.03 metres, set by Thiago Braz in 2016, with a first-attempt clearance at 6.10 metres.
American Sam Kendricks finished a distant second with 5.95m to take silver, while Greece's Emmanouil Karalis claimed the bronze on countback with a best of 5.90m.
Duplantis first broke the pole vault world record in Poland in February 2020 aged 20 bettering the previous mark of 6.16m set by France's Renaud Lavillenie before bettering it again a week later in Glasgow. He has now broken the pole vault world record an incredible nine times.
Not many will bet against him going past the legendary Sergei Bukba, who broke the World record on 17 occasions from 1984 to 1994.
Interestingly, Duplantis's father Greg, an American, was also a pole vaulter, who competed against Bubka in the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the most celebrated sporting stars around the world, Duplantis expressed his joy at fulfilling his childhood dream of breaking the world record at the Olympics, promising a night of celebration.
'The biggest dream since 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,' said Duplantis as he celebrated in front of a packed Stade de France.
'The party is going to be pretty big. Not that much sleep, a lot of partying, a good time.'
