Swedish star Mondo Duplantis soared 6.25m* to set the ninth world pole vault record of his career and cap a gold medal-winning performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games .
The 24-year-old has won every global men’s pole vault title since claiming his first Olympic crown in Tokyo three years ago. With this latest victory, he becomes only the second man to secure two pole vault golds at the Games, following the double achieved by USA’s Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
Duplantis had the competition won at 6.00m, before he had the bar raised to 6.10m – a height that added 7cm to the Olympic record.
He cleared that on his first try but he wasn’t done there, and the bar went up to 6.25m – one centimetre higher than the world record of 6.24m he set in Xiamen in April.
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After failing his first two attempts, he flew over the bar on his third and final try to make history yet again. Silver was claimed by USA’s Sam Kendricks with 5.95m, while Emmanouil Karalis of Greece got bronze with 5.90m.
Duplantis has now cleared six metres or higher a total of 86 times.
In Paris he topped a contest in which 11 men cleared 5.70m and it is only the second time at the Olympic Games in which that depth has been achieved.
It is also the second Olympics where eight men cleared 5.80m or higher, and the second Games where four men managed 5.90m or more.
