Photo: Bildbyrån
Armand Duplantis was never even close to failing to win gold in the Olympics.
Now he admits that he was probably more stressed than he himself thought then and there. Because when he got home after the championship, he crashed completely.
– You focus so much and push your body to a level that is a bit unnatural. So yes, you have to finish, he tells SVT Sport.
Olympic gold, Olympic record and world record in one and the same jump. Armand Duplantis24, surprised no one when he flew over 6.25 meters in the pole vault final in Paris in August. It was the Swedish-American’s second straight Olympic gold.
Earlier in the summer, he had also won the gold in the EC in Rome. In other words, it was quite an intense summer for him and it required a proper recharge to be able to perform at the level we all got used to him maintaining. But if it tastes good, it costs money.
Covered when he got home
Now Armand Duplantis tells what actually happened right after the Olympic gold was salvaged in Paris. He came home and completely crashed. Sleep extremely much for several weeks due to exhaustion.
– The week after, I think I woke up at 11 every day and I could swear it was 8 in the morning. It was absolutely insane. But I slept a lot after the Olympics for a few weeks. But that’s how it is, he tells SVT Sport.
To say the least, the body needed to recover after three years of loading up before the Olympics (the Tokyo Olympics were in the summer of 2021) and an intense summer. It was a great tension that released for him.
– Yes, exactly. And I think you don’t realize how much stress there is until after the competition and then when you could relax. Because it feels like I always had “giant self-confidence” and I didn’t stress so much about the pressure and everything and it felt like “I got this”. It’s calm. But then maybe I was a little more stressed than I thought about everything, he explains.
Defeated Karsten Warholm
The fatigue still came as a bit of a shock to him. Of course he understood that the body would be tough and he was prepared to take it easy for a while, but he did not believe that it would react in such a way as it did.
– Because I was completely exhausted the following week. But of course, there’s a lot of pressure and everything. And you focus so much and push your body to a level that is a bit unnatural. So yes, you must be exhausted. It is common, he says.
After the Olympics, “Mondo” has also succeeded in breaking the Norwegian world record holder in the 400 meter hurdles, Karsten Warholmthough in another athletics discipline. The night before the Diamond League gala in Zürich defeated Duplantis’ Norwegian in a decisive manner.
READ MORE: Karsten Warholm’s unexpected confession after the super duel against Armand Duplantis – why the Norwegian lost: “Haft it in the ass”
– My body is completely exhausted from yesterday. It felt like everything was perfectly fine after the competition, but the night was a bit rough. It felt like I had been run over by the train, he told SVT afterwards.
No wonder you crash-landed for a while when you got home, Armand. After all, you had really worked yourself out both before and during the Olympics. But you came home with a gold medal, so of course it was all worth it.
You are a real king! Rest up now and then look forward to new successes.
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