Mondo Duplantis broke the men’s pole vault world record for a 10th time, clearing 6.26 meters at a Diamond League meet in Poland on Sunday.
Duplantis, 24, broke the record 20 days after doing so at the Paris Games, where he became the first man to repeat as Olympic pole vault gold medalist in 68 years.
Also in Paris, he became the first person to soar more than 20 feet, 6 inches.
“I have never hit a jump that felt absolutely perfect, so I always feel like I can do better,” he said Sunday, according to the Diamond League.
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Before Duplantis’ rise, the world record was 6.16 meters, set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.
Since February 2020, Duplantis has upped the world record by the smallest possible margin — one centimeter — on 10 different occasions.
Duplantis adopted the same record-breaking strategy as Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, who maximized bonus money by raising the bar one centimeter at a time on many occasions in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Bubka broke the outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times between 1984 and 1994, before World Athletics shifted to one world record combining indoor and outdoor.
Duplantis was born and raised in Louisiana and represents Sweden, where his mom is from.
He has lost just four times since the start of 2020, while racking up more than 70 victories, according to Tilastopaja.org.
The Diamond League next moves to Rome on Friday, live on Peacock from 3-5 p.m. ET.
Source Agencies
