Armand Gustav Duplantis

Armand Gustav Duplantis also known as Mondo Duplantis is an American born Swedish pole vaulter. He currently holds the world indoor record in 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships, Belgrade, Serbia with a height of 6.20 meters (20 ft. 4 in.) and a world outdoor record in Diamond League, Rome, Italy of 6.15 meters (20 ft. 2 in.). He is also the current Olympic champion.

He had been voted for the World Athletics Male Athlete of the year in 2020. Later in 2021, Armand won the gold medal at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo and followed in 2022 by becoming the World Champion at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

Early Life of Armand Duplantis

Armand Duplantis was born in an athletic family. His American father Greg Duplantis is of Cajun (An ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana.) descent and is a former pole vaulter with a personal best of 5.80 m (19 ft. ½ in.) Moreover his Swedish mother Helena is a former Heptathlete and Volleyball player.

Armand has two older brothers, Andreas and Antonie and a younger sister, Johanna who also took up sports. Andreas represented Sweden as a pole vaulter in the 2009 World Youth Championships at the Brixen-Bressanone Sport Arena in Bressanone, Italy and 2012 World Junior Championships at the Estadi Olympic Lluis Companys in Barcelona, Catalonia. Whereas, Antoine dropped pole vault for baseball in high school and became the team’s career hits leader in 2019 at the Louisiana State University.

Duplantis first tried pole vaulting when he was three-year-old at the family’s home in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. He set his first age world best at the age of seven with a jump of 3.86 m (12 ft. 8 in.)

His achievements:-

• Duplantis set national freshman records in both indoors and outdoors and was named as the Gatorade Louisiana Boys Track and Field Athlete of the year at Lafayette High School in 2015.
• Armand was a gold medalist in 2015 pole vault event (5.30 m) at the World Youth (U18) Championships in Athletics, Cali, Colombia.
• Won bronze medal in the year 2016 and gold medal in the year 2018 at World Athletics U20 Championship.
• Gold medalist in 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships, Grosseto, Italy Pole Vault event (5.65 m).
• He won gold medal in the pole vault event (6.05 m) at 2018 European Athletics Championships, Berlin, Germany.
• Won silver medal in the year 2019 at World Athletics Championships, Doha, Qatar and gold medal in Southeastern Conference Track and Field Championships, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
• Won gold medal in the pole vault event (6.02 m) in 2021 for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan and European Indoor Championships, Torun, Poland.
• Armand Duplantis set a world record of 6.19 m at Belgrade Indoor Meeting, Belgrade, Serbia in 2022.