PARIS — Armand Duplantis was speechless after Swedish star soared 6.25m to set the ninth world pole vault record of his career and cap a gold medal-winning performance at the Paris Olympics.
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 gold medals at the Games, following the double achieved by USA’s Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
"I haven't processed how fantastic that moment was. It's one of those things that don't really feel real, such an out of body experience," Duplantis said in a press conference.
"What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics – the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. The biggest dream since I was 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," he added.
With the session's other events already completed and his gold medal already secured, Duplantis' bid for a new world record almost became an event within itself, an unexpected encore following a thrilling night of competition.
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.
After failing his first two attempts, he flew over the bar on his third and final try to make history yet again. USA’s Sam Kendricks claimed silver with 5.95m, while Emmanouil Karalis of Greece bagged bronze with 5.90m.
"I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could," said Duplantis, reflecting on the lead-up to his world record-breaking vault. "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 of being in a 100,000 capacity stadium, but I was never the centre of attention. I was just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out," he said.
The two-time Olympic, two-time world indoor and two-time world outdoor champion 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, as per World Atheltics stats.
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.