Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis yet again has shattered his own world record for an impressive ninth time, as he claimed the gold medal in the men’s pole vault at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday.
With the roaring crowd inside the Stade de France, the 24-year-old cleared 6.25 meters at the third attempt despite already clinching his second Olympic gold medal with a 6.00m leap.
Duplantis, who had earlier cleared the 6.10 mark to set an Olympic record, put on a memorable show for the spectators, exceeding the 6.24m height he leapt in April.
“The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics,” Duplantis said. “I’ve been able to do it in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”
“I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could,” he added. “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. Just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it.”
ICONIC
6.25m world record to end a crazy night at @PARIS2024 🔥#Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/nWC8pwFEOT
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 5, 2024
The Swede beat Sam Kendricks of the United States, who took home the silver medal, adding to the bronze he won at the Rio 2016 Games. Meanwhile, Emmanouil Karalis of Greece finished clinching bronze for his first Olympic medal.
Duplantis initially cleared the 6.10 m height, breaking the Olympic record set in 2016 by Brazil’s Thiago Braz. He then took three attempts to surpass his own record after failing to cross over in his two previous attempts thanks to his own arm hitting the bar.
