PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Whether Russian citizens will be allowed to participate in the 2024 Olympics is still unclear.
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is unsure where he stands.
– It depends on many different things, he tells SVT.
Next year the Olympics will be held in Paris. This week, the International Olympic Committee will gather in Mumbai, India. There, the IOC is expected to decide, among other things, whether Russian and Belarusian citizens will be allowed to participate in the championship. Both citizenships have been banned from many sports since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mondo’s first Olympics
One who is expected to take an Olympic gold next year is Armand Duplantis, 23. He has been at the top of the pole vault for years and recently extended his world record to 6.23 meters. Mondo has participated in an Olympics before, the Olympics in Tokyo 2020. But he says that it felt “strange” because it was during the corona pandemic, and that next year’s Olympics feel like his first.
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It is not only people around sports who expect Duplantis to win a gold medal next year. Even he himself thinks so.
– Yes, but I think so, I think so. I am confident about it, he says to SVT.
Russian participation
Something Mondo is not so sure about is the participation of Russians in the Olympics.
– It is clearly complicated, he said. It depends on many different things. Some things can be bigger than the sport itself.
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The pole vault star doesn’t even know where he himself stands on the issue.
– I do not know. I’m not the right person to answer that and I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make the decision. I’m not into politics and I don’t watch the news much so I’m not in the know. It can be bad in a way to stay out of that kind of thing, but maybe that’s also why I can keep calm all the time, says Duplantis.
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