Both European and World Athletics Male Rising Star of the Year in 2018, two years later he was voted World Male Athlete of the Year. For his 2022 season, which saw him breaking world records three times, becoming World outdoor and indoor champion, European and Diamond League champion, and clearing six-metre-plus 22 times, Duplantis was crowned both European and World Male Athlete of the Year. As of February 2023, he has cleared six metres or higher 60 times, the most of any athlete in history.
Early life and career
Duplantis was born into an athletic family in Lafayette, Louisiana. His American father, Greg Duplantis, is a former pole vaulter with a personal best of 5.80m (19ft 1⁄2in), while his Swedish mother Helena (née Hedlund) is a former heptathlete and volleyball player.[5] His two older brothers, Andreas and Antoine, and his younger sister, Johanna, also took up sports; Andreas represented Sweden as a pole vaulter at the 2009 World Youth Championships and 2012 World Junior Championships, while Antoine dropped pole vault for baseball in high school before heading to Louisiana State University where he became the team's career hits leader in 2019.[6][7]
While growing up in an English-speaking household, Duplantis learned adequate Swedish as his second language.[8] Encouraged by his mother, Duplantis took extensive lessons over Skype in order to improve his fluency and by 2020 he felt that he understood native, and faster, speech much better than he had done in the past. His mother claimed at the same time that while Duplantis felt shy about speaking Swedish in public, he was very happy to do so in private, where there was less pressure.[9][10] By 2021, after winning the Olympic gold, his knowledge of the language had improved to the point that he felt comfortable doing full Swedish-speaking interviews.[11] In the past, Duplantis has lamented that improving his Swedish has been somewhat hampered by the high level of English skills in Sweden, which has led to native speakers preferring to speak English when talking with him.[12]
After winning the Jerringpriset as the most popular athlete in Sweden in 2020, Duplantis expressed relief that the Swedish public had accepted and embraced him.[13][14][15] During said Olympics, Duplantis also stated that his older brother having great experiences representing Sweden at a youth level and his love for Sweden as a child made his choice very easy but that he also feels a strong bond to Lafayette.[15] Duplantis usually divides his year between winters in Louisiana and summers in Uppsala in Sweden, adapted for when the two climates offer the best possibilities for training. With Duplantis' mother Helena being raised in Avesta, the municipality raised a pole vault bar beside the gigantic Dala horse monument to showcase the height of his world record, something that made Duplantis "break down in tears" over the significance of what he had accomplished when he heard about it.[16]
Duplantis first tried pole vaulting as a three-year-old at the family's home in Lafayette, Louisiana, and took to the event rapidly; he set his first age group world best at age seven, and his jump of 3.86m (12ft 8in) as a 10-year-old surpassed the previous world bests for ages 11 and 12 as well.[17][18]As of July 2015[update], he holds the world best in all age groups from age seven to age 12; he held the age 13 record until it was broken in May 2015.[17][19]
Duplantis cleared 5.49m (18ft 0in) at a high school meet in Baton Rouge on 6 February 2016, setting a new age-16 world best, world indoor youth best and national high school indoor record; he was the first high school athlete to vault 18 feet indoors.[25][26]Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, the same age as Duplantis, broke his world marks with a 5.53m (18ft 1+1⁄2in) vault only one week later.[27]
2017: U20 world record and U20 European title
On 11 February 2017, at the Millrose Games, Duplantis jumped 5.75m (18ft 10+1⁄2in) to set the world indoor junior record.[28] That mark was ratified by IAAF. A month later he improved to 5.82m (19ft 1in) in the same facility at the New Balance National Scholastic Championships. That mark was not ratified due to incorrect peg lengths being used. On 1 April 2017, Duplantis jumped 5.90 m at the Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, improving his personal record and setting a new World Junior Record. The jump also became a Swedish senior record by 3cm (1in). While the IAAF recognized the record with Duplantis representing Sweden, on 2 December 2017, USATF also ratified Duplantis' mark as the American junior record.[29]
2018: U20 World champion, first European title and first jump over 6.00 m
Duplantis began his 2018 season by improving upon the world indoor junior record by jumping 5.83m (19ft 1+1⁄2in) at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada. He later bettered his indoor record with 5.88m (19ft 3+1⁄2in)[30] and reached 6.05m (19ft 10in) at the 2018 European Athletics Championships. The 6.05 m vault ranked him tied as the fifth-best pole vaulter in history and tied for the second-best outdoors.[31]
2019: World championship silver medallist
Duplantis jumps 6.0 metres at Stockholm Stadium on 24 August 2019.
Duplantis at the 2020 BAUHAUS-galan meeting in Stockholm
On 4 February, Duplantis cleared 6.00m (19ft 8in) indoors at his first competition of the season. He followed that up with three attempts at a new world record of 6.17m (20ft 3in). On his second attempt, he cleared the bar but brushed it off with his arm on the way back down.[33]
On 8 February, Duplantis broke Renaud Lavillenie's almost-six-year-old world record with a jump of 6.17m (20ft 3in) in Toruń, Poland.[34] A week later, on 15 February in Glasgow, he increased the record by another centimetre to 6.18m (20ft 3+1⁄2in).[35]
On 19 February, Duplantis won the Meeting Hauts de France Pas de Calais by clearing 6.07m (19ft 11in), after which he made three unsuccessful attempts at the new world record height of 6.19m (20ft 3+1⁄2in). A few days later, on 23 February, he won the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand by clearing 6.01m (19ft 8+1⁄2in) in his last indoor competition for the season, which ended with new unsuccessful attempts at 6.19m (20ft 3+1⁄2in). On 14 July, he received a scholarship from Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden.[citation needed]
On 17 September at the Rome Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League, Duplantis broke Sergey Bubka's outdoor world best of 6.14m (20ft 1+1⁄2in), with a second-attempt clearance of 6.15m (20ft 2in). Note that the IAAF does not recognize the indoor and outdoor pole vault as separate events; Duplantis already held the world record at 6.18m (20ft 3+1⁄2in) from his indoor clearance in February 2020.
On 1 December, he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal for "the most significant Swedish sports achievement of the year".[36]
2021: Olympic title in Tokyo and European indoor title
On 6 March, Duplantis competed at the 2021 European Indoor Championships. He was the overwhelming favourite to win the title after the late withdrawal of Renaud Lavillenie with injury.[37] Duplantis was still tested by Piotr Lisek and Lavillenie's younger brother Valentin, who went on to claim bronze and silver respectively — the latter with a personal best. Duplantis however set a new championship record of 6.05m (19ft 10in) before making three unsuccessful attempts at 6.19m (20ft 3+1⁄2in), his second narrowly missing the world record.[38]
At the one-year delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Duplantis won a gold medal when he cleared a height of 6.02m (19ft 9in) on his first effort, and afterwards got very close to beating his own world record.[39] Silver medalist Chris Nilsen was full of praise for the winner. He compared the competition against Duplantis that evening as being a regular footballer "trying to emulate Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo" and that his superiority over the world's best pole vaulters was "impressive and ridiculous".[40]
2022: New world records, first world titles and second European title
On 7 March, he beat his own world record by jumping 6.19m (20ft 3+1⁄2in) at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting.[41] Two weeks later, at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, he won the gold medal. At the same time, he broke his world record yet again, by jumping 6.20m (20ft 4in).[42][43]
On 30 June, at the BAUHAUS-galan, Duplantis broke his own outdoor world best of 6.15m (20ft 2in) set in 2020, by jumping 6.16m (20ft 2+1⁄2in).[44]
Duplantis capped his season in September by clearing 6.07m (19ft 11in) at the ZürichDiamond League final to retain the Diamond Trophy.[47]
2023: Sixth and seventh world records
Duplantis got his 2023 campaign off to strong start at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala, the meet named after his nickname. His winning height of 6.10m (20ft 0in) represented not only his best ever season opener but also the highest season-opening performance of any pole vaulter in history. He also broke Bubka's record of 11 vaults of 6.10 m or higher (including indoors and outdoors).[48] On 25 February at the All Star Perche indoor meeting in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Duplantis broke the world record again, clearing 6.22m (20ft 5in) to increase the number of his career six-metre-plus jumps to 60.[49] On 17 September, pending confirmation, he broke his own world record when he cleared 6.23 meters (20 ft 5 1/4 in) at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.[50]
Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Mycenaean Greeks, Minoan Greeks and Celts. It has been a full medal event at the Olympic Games since 1896 for men and since 2000 for women.
The first world record in the men's pole vault was recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1912.
Alhaji Jeng is a Swedish pole vaulter.
Jeff Hartwig is an American pole vaulter.
Steven Leslie Hooker OAM is an Australian former pole vaulter and Olympic gold medalist. His personal best, achieved in 2008, is 6.06 m making him the fourth-highest pole vaulter in history, behind Sergey Bubka, Renaud Lavillenie and Armand Duplantis.
Renaud Lavillenie is a French pole vaulter. Lavillenie won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London and the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. In addition to his Olympic success, he has won three World Indoor Championships gold medals (record), three European Championships gold medals and four European Indoor Championships gold medals. He has also won one silver medal and four bronze medals at the World Championships. As of 25 August 2016, he holds the French national records for the highest pole vault clearance both outdoors and indoors. The 6.16 was the absolute world record for the pole vault for over six years, 2014–2020. He was the pole vault overall winner of the IAAF Diamond League in seven consecutive years, from 2010 to 2016.
The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships in Athletics, the championships serve as a way of selecting the best athletes for those competitions.
Thiago Braz da Silva is a Brazilian athlete specializing in the pole vault who holds the Olympic record of 6.03 metres. He won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Luke Cutts is a British pole vaulter. His personal best of 5.83 m set in 2014 is the British indoor record for the event. His outdoor best of 5.70 m puts him third on the all-time British lists.
The pole vault at the Summer Olympics is grouped among the four track and field jumping events held at the multi-sport event. The men's pole vault has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the first Summer Olympics in 1896. The women's event is one of the latest additions to the programme, first being contested at the 2000 Summer Olympics – along with the addition of the hammer throw, this brought the women's field event programme to parity with the men's.
Sam Kendricks is an American pole vaulter. He is a three-time indoor and six-time outdoor national champion (2014–2019), the 2016 Olympics bronze medalist, and the 2017 and 2019 World Champion. In 2019, Kendricks set the American pole vault record at 6.06 m, tying him with Steve Hooker for fourth all time. He later won the gold medal at the World Championships in Doha.
The World Athletics Indoor Tour, formerly the IAAF World Indoor Tour, is an annual series of indoor track and field meetings, held since 2016. It was designed to create a Diamond League-style circuit for indoor track and field events, to raise the profile of indoor track and field, and replaced the IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings series.
Copernicus Cup is an annual indoor track and field competition which takes place in February at the multi-purpose sports and entertainment Arena Toruń in Toruń, Poland. The meeting is currently an IAAF World Indoor Tour Meeting. In 2019, the competition's title sponsor was PKN Orlen.
Christopher Nilsen is an American athlete specialising in pole vault and high jump. He won the silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the pole vault event with a jump of 5.97 m.
The men's pole vault event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 31 July and 3 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 29 athletes from 18 nations competed. Armand Duplantis of Sweden won gold, with Christopher Nilsen of the United States earning silver and Thiago Braz of Brazil taking bronze. It was Sweden's first victory in the event and first medal of any color in the men's pole vault since 1952. Braz, who had won in 2016, became the ninth man to earn multiple medals in the pole vault.
The men's pole vault at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha from 28 September to 1 October 2019.
All Star Perche is an annual indoor pole vaulting meeting which is typically held in February at the Clermont-Ferrand Sports Hall in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The meeting was founded by world record-breakers Sergey Bubka and Renaud Lavillenie in 2016. Its creation was a response to the cessation of the annual Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk due to the War in Donbass.
The men's pole vault at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships took place on 20 March 2022.
The men's pole vault at the 2022 World Athletics Championships was held at the Hayward Field in Eugene on 22 and 24 July 2022.
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