World! Applaud. Applaud. Applaud. World! Applaud. Applaud. Applaud. Not since Usain Bolt was leaving racing rivals in the dust has an Olympic track and field stadium been so enraptured by a single mononymous athlete. Screw.
Now, World.
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, son of an American pole vaulter father and Swedish heptathlete mother, who decided early in his career to compete for Sweden instead of the United States, had the stadium all to himself, a dream for a field athlete whose feats are usually overshadowed by the races on the track. The runners finished the night and Duplantis had already won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal and even broken the Olympic record, celebrating the feat with imitating Turkish Olympian Yusuf Dikeç’s nonchalant shooting pose, which went viral and became a meme.
Now it was Duplantis’ turn to create his own viral moment. He would attempt to set a new world record for the ninth time, raising the bar 6.25 m, or 20.5 feet, off the ground. Surpassing that height would improve on the 6.24m mark he set in China in April this year. (Duplantis earns between $30,000 and $100,000 each time he sets a new world record. Then he raises the bar by a single centimeter to break it whenever he can.)
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The more than 70,000 fans in the packed stadium were trapped in Duplantis. The stage was all his.
“What a time to be inside the Stade de France,” said the announcer over the loudspeaker. “We are the lucky few.”
Duplantis, who has dominated the pole vault for the past four years and may be, along with American sprinter Noah Lyles, the brightest global star in his sport, missed on his first attempt. An unusual Scandinavian-Cajun drink filled a block of the stands: fans from Sweden, as well as Duplantis’ family and friends from Sweden and from Lafayette, Louisiana, where Duplantis grew up, gathered there. They all wore Sweden shirts. “People in both places like crawfish,” noted Duplantis family friend Remy Jadell, an attorney who lives in Lafayette.
A Swedish press officer behind this area noted that Duplantis was not that close on his first jump. He doubted Duplantis would attempt his third attempt if he missed the second. He has already accomplished a lot. Why risk overexertion or even injury?
Duplantis did not convert his second attempt. But he had promised before the Olympics to “do something that has never been done before”. World. World. World. The chants continued. He was not willing to disappoint the legions.
Shortly after 10:17 pm Paris time, Duplantis raced towards the post for his final attempt. “He’s the fastest pole vaulter there is,” American Sam Kendricks, who won silver in the pole vault on Monday after the competition. That speed, according to Kendricks, gives Duplantis the drive to set new standards in his sport. “I have to match his speed, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to match it,” Kendricks says.
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As soon as Duplantis planted his rod in the area, he had a really good feeling. “Right when I hit takeoff, I kind of knew,” he said afterward. Duplantis stood up, stood up, let go – and over the bar, falling to the mat and letting out a cathartic roar. People in the friends and family section of Mondo surrounded each other. Duplantis ran to his girlfriend, model and influencer Desire England, and they kissed. They are perhaps the most famous couple in their country, unable to walk down the street without being recognized.
“Honestly, if I don’t get past this point in my career, then I’m okay with that, you know?” Duplantis said. “I don’t think you can really get much better than what just happened. So it’s incredible. And I’m so…” Duplantis paused. “I am a happy man.”
When Duplantis moved to Sweden after completing a year at LSU, where he was friends with Sha’Carri Richardson, in 2019, he felt pressure to learn the language and drive Swedish cars in order to gain acceptance and popularity. By now, however, the Scandinavian country claimed him and Abba with similar conviction. (“Dancing Queen” played at the stadium after Duplantis broke the world record.)
“I think it’s fair to say that if you live in Sweden and feel Swedish, that’s enough,” says Stian Armstad, a healthcare executive from Stockholm who was born in Norway and so sympathizes with Duplantis’ plight. “In Sweden we say if you stand on the right side of the escalator, you are Swedish,” says Armstad. “Then it’s okay. And we love Mondo.”
Duplantis spoke with King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden after setting the record. “Very cool fam,” he told Swedish reporters.
“Wow, how cool.”
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A Tuesday night karaoke celebration was at least on the cards for Duplantis and his team, Englander told TIME after breaking the record. “He sings very well,” she said. “Don’t tell him I told you that. But he is really very talented.”
“But I’ll probably suck, because I already feel like I’m losing my voice,” Duplantis said. “So it’s already a bad start to the night. But I’ll probably have some liquid courage and probably get up on that stage anyway.”
“I’m going to have a good night,” he said. “I’ve been practically locked in a cave for the last three months, I haven’t really done anything.”
And once he comes off this post-Olympic, post-world-record high, Duplantis and Inglander — who regularly post enviable images on Instagram from all sorts of exotic locales — plan to take a vacation.
Where?
“That’s a secret,” she said.
What Englander would say is that he had no doubt that Mondo would break the record for the biggest worldwide audience so far. Why?
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
