PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Armand Duplantis was named the world’s best male track and field athlete.
But it attracted a lot of criticism and now “Mondo” is breaking the silence about the price.
– It’s super weird, he says to Expressen.
After another super year for Armand Duplantis In 2023, with double world records and WC gold, the Swede was rewarded big at the end of the year. The 24-year-old was named the world’s best male athlete by the International Athletics Federation World Athletics.
Duplanti’s prize
It is the third time in his career that “Mondo” has won the prestigious award, but the award was also highly controversial and met with great criticism. Then the association, completely without warning, chose to divide the prize into three different winners in three different categories (“field”, “track” and “out of stadia”).
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Pole vault star Duplantis (field), the sprinter Noah Lyles (track) and the long-distance runner Kelvin Kiptum (out of stadia) thus all received the award as the world’s best male athlete for 2023. Radiosport’s athletics expert Miro Zalar was furious and went hard at the strange decision with three winners with pure disgust in his words.
Mondo’s Wrath
Duplantis himself has not wanted to talk about this until now when he gives his honest view and breaks the silence after the massive criticism.
– When it happened, I didn’t even try to process what happened and I just thought about trying to be as diplomatic as possible. At first I wasn’t angry, but more just confused. I didn’t really understand what was going on, he admits in an interview with Expressen.
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The confusion then turned to anger, and now Mondo saws the decision from World Athletics.
– That they didn’t tell us anything before, that’s what makes you a little pissed off. We were misled by them, says the Swedish world star and calls the action “snaky”.
– One wonders what the thought process was like. Because if they had thought it was a good idea to split the price, then they should have told us in advance. But now it feels like they knew it wouldn’t land well, but they refrained from telling us because we might not want to come then.
READ MORE: The remarkable tribute to Armand Duplantis – the monument of “Mondo” makes everyone gape: “Never seen anything like it”
Armand Duplantis says that he himself did not express his great disappointment to the International Athletics Federation. But he is convinced that they already know that they have made mistakes and have been affected by the criticism.
– I think it’s a shame – and it’s strange. Super weird. I think you can hand out awards for the categories as well, but you must have a winner of the athlete of the year award. Because now that three got it, it’s like nobody got it.
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