Armand
Duplantis
Sweden
·
Athletics
Date of birth | 10 November 1999 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Lafayette, Louisiana, USA |
Age | 26 |
Nationality | Sweden |
Career start | 2015 |
Disciplines | Pole Vault |
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis is quite simply the greatest pole vaulter of all time. Having broken the world record height no less than 14 times to date, the Swedish-American legend has already raised the pole vaulting bar to a towering 6.30m by the age of 25.
Raised in an athletic family, Mondo's dad was a pole vaulter and his mother is a former heptathlete and volleyball player. His two older brothers also pursued sports, with Andreas previously representing Sweden in the pole vault while Antoine plays pro baseball. His younger sister Johanna is also a pole vaulter.
Though born and raised in the USA, Armand decided to represent his mother's home country of Sweden. Since then, he's endeared himself to the Swedish public – not only for his incredible feats in athletics, but for fully embracing the language and culture.
Mondo began his pole-vaulting journey at four years old, setting his first world record with a jump of 3.86m at only seven-years-old. By 2015, he held the world-best height in all age groups from ages seven to 12.
In 2018, he began improving the world indoor junior record by jumping 5.83m at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada, USA, and eventually reached 6.05m at the 2018 European Athletics Championships, a height which tied him for the fourth-best in history. In 2019, he took the silver medal outdoors at the World Athletics Championships in Doha with a jump of 5.97m.
With a trajectory like that, it always seemed a matter of when, not if, he would challenge for the senior indoor world record. That moment arrived on February 8, 2020, when he cleared a stunning vault of 6.17m at a World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Torun, Poland, to break Renaud Lavillenie's record 6.16m that had stood since 2014. Then, only one week later, he increased his record to 6.18m at the IAAF World Indoor Tour event in Glasgow, UK.
Next in his sights was, obviously, Sergey Bubka's 26-year-old men’s outdoor pole vault world record height of 6.14m. Mondo beat that on a historic night at the Diamond League in Rome in September 2020 when he jumped 6.15m. That achievement also scored him the 2020 World Athlete of the Year accolade.
After winning gold at the Tokyo Games and being named World Athlete of the Year a second time in 2022, Mondo further raised his record height to 6.22m at the 2023 All Star Perche indoor meet in Clermont-Ferrand, France. This was followed with yet more World Championship gold before once again breaking his own world record with a vault of 6.23m.
Mondo raised the bar again in April 2024, when he added another centimetre to his record at the Diamond League in Xiamen, China, then, in a career defining achievement, he smashed it again on the world's biggest stage at Paris 2024 he won gold medal with a leap of 6.25m.
Since then, Mondo has continued to confound all expectations and raise the bar even higher until claiming a 13th world record in August 2025, when he cleared a towering 6.29m at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
In September 2025, Mondo won gold at the World Championships in Athletics in Tokyo, Japan, with the world record height of 6.30m, surpassing his own record by one centimetre.
We're certain Mondo will set the bar even higher in the years to come, so watch this space!
Duplantis celebrates breaking the world record in Tokyo (again)
© Sona Maleterova/Red Bull Content Pool
Taking a breather before another jump
© Adam Klingeteg/Red Bull Content Pool
Duplantis's speed on the runway translate to height in his jump
© Adam Klingeteg/Red Bull Content Pool
He's been obsessed with pole vaulting since he was three-years-old
© Adam Klingeteg/Red Bull Content Pool