Facts: Armand “Mondo” Duplantis
Born: November 10, 1999.
Lives: Apartment on Kungsholmen in Stockholm
Merit list: Olympic gold, WC gold indoors, WC silver outdoors, EC gold outdoors, EC gold indoors, world record holder.
Current: On the night of Monday, Sweden’s biggest gold medalist will compete for WC medals in Eugene.
Several people stop, stare and seem to think: “Surely it is? Yes, it is”.
Shortly after, they pick up their phones, take a bunch of photos surreptitiously and continue their walk past the lawn outside the World Cup Village in Eugene, USA.
After a few steps, some of them take the opportunity to turn their heads to once again catch a glimpse of athletics’ hottest superstar.
Armand Duplantis attracts attention wherever he is.
National athletics team captain Kajsa Bergqvist.”Biggest in the athletics world”
The 22-year-old is of course aware of the interest surrounding him but he doesn’t care one bit about the stares, the pictures and the pressure to deliver that comes with stardom.
He is just as calm, cool and focused on the athletics arenas.
— He is the greatest in the world of athletics. He is, no matter what discipline you are in, athletics’ greatest. There is no one who does not know who “Mondo” Duplantis is. He is “top of his game”, says Kajsa Bergqvist.
Sweden’s national team captain is also part of the crowd that is impressed by the pole vaulter; his calmness, focus and security, how he handles pressure, expectations and his star position.
“Nothing worries him,” she says.
— It was like the indoor WC. He had won and was going to make his last attempts but he had to wait, he sat down and talked, he got up to jump but didn’t get to be measured again. Someone else had gotten mad: “Then I’ll screw this up”. But he takes it super cool, goes out and jumps over.
— I am so incredibly impressed by the quality he has in his head, and combined with the physicality, he is unbeatable.
Father Greg Duplantis says he doesn’t notice any difference in his son’s stardom compared to the time before the international breakthrough.
And he is aware that the star status and the press are not something that affects Armand Duplantis.
— He has always been strongly motivated and put pressure on himself. I don’t think that external influences him in any other way than the demands he has on himself, he says.
Armand Duplantis together father Greg Duplantis and girlfriend Desiré Inglander. Just being himself
Armand Duplantis:
– I’m just being myself. I try to jump as high as I can in all competitions. Besides that, I try to have balance in everything, it’s nice to think about something other than pole vaulting. It is needed, he says.
— I don’t think it’s too much to handle. I try to keep everything simple.
About the pressure, the expectations?
— When you have won as much as I have in the last two years, it is quite reasonable that everyone expects me to win. I do it myself.