MONDO DUPLANTIS: NEW RECORD, NEW SONG

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Mondo Duplantis breaks pole vault world record – again – with his own song playing in the background.

Cen­time­ter by cen­time­ter, Mon­do Duplan­tis con­tin­ues to rewrite the lim­its of pole vault­ing. On Fri­day, the 25-year-old Swedish super­star broke his own world record for the 11th time, clear­ing 6.27 meters at the All Star Perche meet in Cler­mont-Fer­rand, France.

This time, Duplan­tis’ record-break­ing moment had a per­son­al sound­track: his debut sin­gle, Bop, played around the sta­di­um as he soared over the bar.

“I just felt real­ly good,” Duplan­tis told reporters after the com­pe­ti­tion, accord­ing to Reuters. “What can I say – I came here to do it. I put every­thing in place to do it. The run-up worked real­ly well. I just did it.”

At this point, Duplan­tis’ dom­i­nance feels almost inevitable. When he com­petes, the only real ques­tion is whether he will set yet anoth­er world record.

On Fri­day, Duplan­tis made it all look effort­less. He cleared 5.65m, 5.91m, 6.02m, and 6.07m – all on his first attempts. Greece’s Emmanouil Kar­alis set a nation­al record at 6.02m to claim sec­ond place, in what turned out to be a his­toric com­pe­ti­tion. In total, six ath­letes cleared at least 5.91 meters – the most ever in a sin­gle event.

With the win secured, Duplan­tis did what he does best: raised the bar. This time, by 20 cen­time­ters. Moments lat­er, the crowd erupt­ed as Duplan­tis cleared 6.27 meters on his very first try. Fire­works lit up the are­na, and arms shot into the air in cel­e­bra­tion.

What makes this feat even more remark­able is the tim­ing. Ear­li­er that day, Duplan­tis released his debut song, Bop, which played over the speak­ers as he launched him­self into his­to­ry.

“When I made this song a cou­ple of months ago, I thought this would be a per­fect song to jump to here,” he said. “That’s why I rushed it out.”

Since first break­ing the pole vault world record in Feb­ru­ary 2020, Duplan­tis has devel­oped a habit of push­ing the mark high­er – usu­al­ly by just a cen­time­ter each time. His steady climb has reshaped the sport.

Next up, Duplan­tis will chase a third con­sec­u­tive World Indoor Cham­pi­onship title lat­er this month in Nan­jing, Chi­na. With the form he’s in, the world record may not be safe for long.