PARIS, France — At the end of the Olympic day on Monday, Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand "Mondo" Duplantis had all 70,000-plus inside Stade de France in the palm of his hands.
Duplantis had already clinched winning the gold medal with a 6.0 meter (19 feet, 8 inches) vault, and the rest of the track and field events had wrapped up for the day.
The 24-year-old already held nine of the 10 highest pole vaults of all-time, and he decided to go after the world record (which he held) at the Olympics, setting up for a movie script moment.
All eyes on Duplantis, he set the bar at 6.25 meters (20 feet, 6 inches) topping the 6.24 meter height that Duplantis set in the Xiamen Diamond League earlier this year. His first attempt failed and the crowd groaned. His second attempt failed, too.
For his third and final attempt, with fellow competitors hyping up the crowd by his side, Duplantis hit the new world record and the crowd erupted.
“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was," Duplantis said after his historic jump. "It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience. It’s still hard to kind of land right now.
"What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. [My] biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”
After Duplantis won, Americans online started asking why Duplantis competed for Sweden and not the United States.
Why is Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis competing for Sweden?
Duplantis is a dual citizen, born to American dad Greg Duplantis, a former world-class pole vaulter himself, and Swedish mother Helena, a former heptathlete and volleyball player.
Mondo Duplantis was born and raised in Lafayette, La., and went to college at LSU. A photo of him alongside American track star Sha'Carri Richardson, of Dallas, at freshman orientation at LSU.
So, why did he choose to represent the Sweden instead of the United States?
During a 2022 interview with Olympics.com, Duplantis’ Swedish youth coach, Jonas Anshelm, admitted that he “definitely wanted him in the team” and pitched the idea of representing Sweden.
Anshelm also offered his father a job for the national track and field team to coach his son, which is not permitted by the U.S. team. The U.S. team relies on an Olympic trial process for qualification, while Sweden looks at the overall records from their national team selection across the competitive season.
This happens all of the time with athletes who hold citizenship in multiple countries. A similar case is Joel Embiid choosing to represent the United States over France and Cameroon. Americans are just used to seeing athletes choosing to be part of Team USA, as Embiid did, not the other way around.
Despite representing blue and yellow in competition, Duplantis has showed he still holds his American roots in high regard. A clip from the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade showed Duplantis stopping for the Star Spangled Banner in between interviews after receiving his gold medal.
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