Duplantis breaks pole vault record, captures gold

SAINT-DENIS, France -- The pole vaulter they call "Mondo" really can put on a show.

With the rest of the action at the Olympic track wrapped up for the evening and the crowd of 80,000 at the Stade de France still on its feet, Armand Duplantis rested the pole on his right shoulder and took a deep breath. Then, he lifted up that long piece of carbon fiber and took off down the runway and into the night sky.

Another Olympic gold medal already was his. When he came crashing down into the padding on the other side of that sky-high, pink-tinted bar, so was another world record.

Duplantis, the Louisiana-born 24-year-old who competes for his mother's native Sweden, cleared 6.25 meters (20 feet, 6 inches) to break the world record for the ninth time -- but the first time on his sport's grandest stage.

His next move was a sprint to the stands to hug his girlfriend and celebrate his record and second Olympic gold with all those friends and family wearing yellow and blue. The country's king and queen were on hand, as well, to witness Sweden's latest history-making leap into the pole vault pit.

"It's hard to understand, honestly," he said. "If I don't beat this moment in my career, then I'm pretty OK with that. I don't think you can get much better than what just happened."

Those in attendance concurred.

"Mondo is an extraordinary jumper because of four factors," said American Sam Kendricks, who finished second. "One, he's got a great coach for a long time. He's had a lot of time to do it. He's got great equipment and understanding of the event. He's a fan of sport, and he's got God's hand on his back."

By winning a second straight gold medal and breaking the record for the ninth time -- each time by one centimeter -- Duplantis is now next to, if not above, Sergei Bubka as the greatest ever in this event.

Duplantis is in the conversation with America's Ryan Crouser, a world-record holder and three-time gold medalist in shot put, as among the most dominant athletes on the field side of this sport.

And when it comes to delivering great theater, as he showed once again, Duplantis is in a class of his own.

After he sealed the victory over Kendricks, then captured the Olympic record by clearing 6.10 meters, he had the bar moved to one centimeter higher than the world-record height.

Following his first miss, he used a break to study video on a tablet with his parents, who met decades ago while they were both on the LSU track and field team. Another miss ensued, then another long break.

The fans clapped in rhythm and sang along to the French song "Alleur de Feu" -- "Light the Fire" -- getting ready for Mondo's leap into history.

A homegrown talent, Duplantis learned the sport on a pole vault pit his parents dug in their backyard in Lafayette, Louisiana.

During long afternoons of jumping in that pit, Duplantis often envisioned himself going for a world record on his last jump at the Olympics.

Maybe not in the equation -- the parties that world record and Olympic title would set off. An hour after the stadium cleared, the song "Dancing Queen" by the Swedish group ABBA was playing loud and proud outside the stadium.

"For it to actually happen the way that it did and for me to put the right jump together at the right time, it's just, like, how do you explain it?" he said. "It's bigger than words for me."

Duplantis was the closing act on a night that included an upset by Kenya's Beatrice Chebet in the women's 5,000 meters. One of the world's best distance runners, Chebet's Kenyan teammate Faith Kipyegon, ended up with silver, but only after winning an appeal of her initial disqualification for trading elbows with world-record holder Gudaf Tsegay.

The appeal left Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands with the bronze medal. Hassan will also race in the 10,000 and marathon, trying to duplicate her three distance medals from the Tokyo Games.