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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sweden’s pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has ascended to the heights of global sports domination one historic leap at a time. The American-born (to a Swedish mother) athlete — who is the reigning men’s world and Olympic champion — has constantly rewritten history during his ascent to being one of the best athletes in history.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplantis first broke the pole vault world record in 2020 — reaching a height of 6.17m to leap over the then record of 6.16m set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie six years prior. Lavillenie snapped the 6.14m mark set by pole vaulting legend Sergey Bubka, of the former Soviet Union, in 1994. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That it took 10 years for Bubka’s mark to be toppled is an indication of how brilliant he was during his time. He still holds the record for toppling the pole vault record the most times – with 17 history-making clearances over a 10-year period. Often he was breaking his own record, and was the first pole vaulter to reach the 6m height. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplantis is currently on 10 record leaps. All of them have taken place over just four years. In 2024, the 25-year-old snapped his own record three times, which has led him to believe he can achieve even more. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2538049\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/12461515.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1783\" height=\"1123\" /> <em>Armand Duplantis competes in the men’s pole vault competition during the Diamond League atletics meeting — Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, southern Poland, on 25 August 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Adam Warzawa)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2538048\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2171808775-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1796\" height=\"1153\" /> <em>Duplantis competes during the AG Memorial Van Damme Diamond League finals meeting at King Baudouin Stadium on 13 September 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Jorge Luis Alvarez Pupo / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking to the International Sports Press Association, Duplantis said he believed he could leap just a bit further above his current world record of 6.26m — which he set in August 2024. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I really don’t know. Maybe 6.40m. It’s possible. It feels possible, at least. I don’t really think about it that much though, honestly,” Duplantis stated. “It depends on a few factors. But the poles are very similar and pretty much the same as they were in the past. Now they’re maybe just a little bit better at making them more consistent. The fibreglass that I use is the same material that Bubka used,” said Duplantis.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The most important thing is the stiffness of the pole, because the stiffness determines how much you’re going to get back from it, how much recoil you’re going to get back from the pole,” the Swiss star said on what he feels he would need to reach this height. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“So, I just try to use stiffer poles. I have some poles that are five centimeters longer too, but I haven’t used them because I’m not there yet, and I need to have a little bit more speed.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speed is imperative for a pole vaulter, for garnering momentum. Hence Duplantis dabbled in sprinting as a youngster before settling exclusively for the pole vault “because Americans and Jamaicans are too fast”. </span>\r\n<h4><strong>Influence</strong></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that his father Greg Duplantis was also a pole vaulter (with a personal best of 5.80m) was certainly another influence in Duplantis choosing the sport. But it goes beyond that. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I like sprinting, it’s one of my favourite things. But I do like the complexity and the technical side of pole vaulting more. That’s what makes it so challenging and what makes it so rewarding and fulfilling also,” Duplantis said. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024, between breaking records and picking his second Olympic Games gold medal, Duplantis also had time to squeeze an exhibition 100m race, beating his good friend Karsten Warholm. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2538045\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2165494509.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1841\" height=\"1088\" /> <em>Duplantis sets a new world record on day 10 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on 5 August 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Swede beat Warholm, who specialises in the 400m hurdles, to earn additional bragging rights alongside all his other achievements in 2024. But what’s the fastest speed he has clocked? </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I don’t know. At the Olympics, they said it was 10.6m per second. That seems too fast and so wrong. I don’t know the way it was measured, but I think there are different measurements because I’ve heard a lot. Like 10.2m per second. I’ve also done 10.3m before,” Duplantis said.</span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Swede was nicknamed Mondo (which means world in Italian) by his godfather as a child. Through his global domination, via the pole vault, he has lived up to this nickname. He is not done just yet; greater heights await in 2025. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sweden’s pole vaulter Armand Duplantis has ascended to the heights of global sports domination one historic leap at a time. The American-born (to a Swedish mother) athlete — who is the reigning men’s world and Olympic champion — has constantly rewritten history during his ascent to being one of the best athletes in history.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplantis first broke the pole vault world record in 2020 — reaching a height of 6.17m to leap over the then record of 6.16m set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie six years prior. Lavillenie snapped the 6.14m mark set by pole vaulting legend Sergey Bubka, of the former Soviet Union, in 1994. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That it took 10 years for Bubka’s mark to be toppled is an indication of how brilliant he was during his time. 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(Photo: EPA-EFE / Adam Warzawa)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2538048\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1796\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2538048\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2171808775-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1796\" height=\"1153\" /> <em>Duplantis competes during the AG Memorial Van Damme Diamond League finals meeting at King Baudouin Stadium on 13 September 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Jorge Luis Alvarez Pupo / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking to the International Sports Press Association, Duplantis said he believed he could leap just a bit further above his current world record of 6.26m — which he set in August 2024. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I really don’t know. Maybe 6.40m. It’s possible. It feels possible, at least. I don’t really think about it that much though, honestly,” Duplantis stated. “It depends on a few factors. 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Armand Duplantis competes in the men’s pole vault competition during the Diamond League atletics meeting — Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, southern Poland, on 25 August 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Adam Warzawa)
Duplantis competes during the AG Memorial Van Damme Diamond League finals meeting at King Baudouin Stadium on 13 September 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Jorge Luis Alvarez Pupo / Getty Images)
Duplantis sets a new world record on day 10 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on 5 August 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)