KC Lightfoot, 23, who broke the North American record of 607 at the beginning of June, will compete in the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on Tuesday. The Olympic quadruple in Tokyo has quickly become one of the best of all time.
American-Swedish pole vaulter born in 1999 Armand Duplantis has been glowing with many exaggerations for almost a decade. Around the same time that “Mondo” won the adult EC gold in Berlin at the age of 18 with a score of 605, his peer, the American KC Lightfoot was happy with his record 558, which is also a really hard result for an 18-year-old. However, nothing compared to the prodigy Mondo.
When he was younger, Lightfoot heard comparisons to Duplantis to the point of boredom. The 23-year-old duo has some really uncanny similarities. They are one day apart in age, both fathers were pole vaulters themselves and both spent a lot of time as children at the pole vaulting place built in their own backyard.
– We had a very similar childhood. Although he started jumping much younger than me. Our jumping techniques used to be pretty similar, but nowadays they are more different from each other. I no longer hear so many comparisons to Mondo, Lightfoot says.
Lightfoot, who lived in Missouri, and Duplantis, who grew up in Louisiana, have been competing in the same competitions since they were 16 years old, and now they are two of the best active jumpers in the world. Duplantis has improved the world record several times and now stands at 622. Somewhat surprisingly, Lightfoot broke the North American record of 607 in Nashville at the beginning of June. He also crossed six meters the other night on loan fences in Bergen, from where the journey continued to Turku and the Paavo Nurmi Games.
The cheerful Lightfoot says that he has already had time to admire the summer Turku and that he was surprised by the good weather. Admittedly, the days have largely been spent in the hotel room, dealing with time difference fatigue.
While five years ago, Duplantis’ bar was almost half a meter higher than Lightfoot’s, now the difference is 15 centimeters. Duplantis is one of the most superior track and field athletes of the moment.
– I would like to think that I will catch him. But he jumps really high and 15 centimeters is a lot at this level. Of course I hope to catch up with him. 607 was one of my career goals and I didn’t expect to jump it so early. Now I would like to jump 610, says Lightfoot.
Is it a good thing for the sport that one jumper in his own class keeps raising the bar higher? Lightfoot thinks for a moment before answering.
– I see both sides of it. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. Of course I’m not going to say anything bad. It is good in the sense that Mondo brings a lot of spectators to the sport. It is the most important. We really try to beat him, but we can’t help it because he jumps a lot higher than the rest of us,” Lightfoot says.
In the all-time outdoor track statistics, Lightfoot and Duplantis are only separated by legendary Sergei Bubka. Also taking into account indoor tracks Renaud Lavillenie has jumped from a higher place. With his record jump, Lightfoot left his idol, his countryman, behind by a centimeter in the all-time statistics by Sam Kendricks30.
– I love Sam! We are best friends. He’s a great guy and we talk every day. He congratulated me as soon as I broke his record. It made the achievement even better.
The cycle of injury was broken
In addition to KC Lightfoot, the Polish World Cup silver medalist is also participating in the men’s pole vault at the Paavo Nurmi Games. Piotr Lisek and 585 this season jumped by Australia Kurtis Marshall. Finns will participate in the competition Urho Kujanpää, Tommi Holttinen and Juho Alasaari. The competition starts at 16:44.
KC Lightfoot, who speaks of self-confidence, is the overwhelming pre-favorite of the competition. The conditions are great and Lightfoot enjoys playing sports more than ever.
– I am now the man of 607 because I am finally not suffering from injuries. I’ve been injured for the past couple of years. It’s been really hard to jump off the bat and give one hundred percent of yourself when your performance is limited.
In the past, Lightfoot has suffered from, among other things, a rupture of the cartilage edge of the hip and a fracture of the sesamoid bone of the foot. He has often jumped even when injured, even if every step was painful. Still, his season bests have been close to six meters, and in the Tokyo Olympic final two years ago, he finished fourth. Now that the injury cycle has been resolved for the time being, Lightfoot has soared to a new meter figure.
– As a young person, you are quite impatient, and you would like nothing more than to jump high and run hard, but the doctors forbade it. It’s awfully hard to sit at home while everyone else is competing. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Reminding myself that injuries heal over time helped me cope.
broadcasts Paavo Nurmi’s track and field competitions on Tuesday at Areena at 4:35 p.m., on TV2 at 6:00 p.m. and on radio Puhee at 4:30 p.m.