Mondo Duplantis has won Olympic gold for the second time.
The Lafayette native, who attended Lafayette High and then later LSU, was the favorite heading into Monday’s Pole Vault final at the Paris Olympics.
Duplantis, who represents Sweden, entered these Olympics with the eight highest pole-vaulting heights ever recorded. Most recently, he posted a record 6.24 meters on April 20th, 2024 in Xiamen, China.
On Saturday, Duplantis participated in the qualifying round of the Men’s Pole Vault at the Paris Games. He cruised through to the final, tying for the highest height reached at 5.75 meters. That advanced him to Monday’s final.
Duplantis, the reigning gold medalist cleared the opening mark round of 5.7 meters, then opted out of the 5.8 meter round. After cruising past 5.85 meters, Mondo declined the 5.9-meter round and then advanced past the 5.95-meter round.
After the other vaulters were eliminated, Duplantis, America’s Sam Kendricks, and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis all moved onto the 6-meter round and each secured a medal for their country.
In the final, Duplantis cleared 6 meters on his first try while the other two failed to clear on their first attempt. Karalis and Kendricks couldn’t clear on their second attempts, securing Dupantis the gold medal for Sweden. Kendricks won silver and Karalis got bronze.
After already winning the gold medal, Dupantis broke the Olympic record for the highest vault, clearing 6.1 meters. The previous record was 6.03 meters by Thiago Braz in 2016.
He then went for his own world record. Duplantis missed on his first two tries but then broke his previous record of 6.24 meters and cleared the 6.25 meter mark on his final attempt.