When Mondo met Bubka: Vault record breakers talk poles and future goals

At 21, Mondo Duplantis is already one of the biggest names in track and field athletics.

The American-born Swede raised the pole vault record twice last year to 6.18m, before eclipsing Sergey Bubka's 26-year-old outdoor mark in Rome last September.

Duplantis is unbeaten since finishing second to Sam Kendricks at the Doha 2019 World Championships, and a first global title at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 appears to be his for the taking.

In honour of his achievements, Duplantis has been shortlisted for the Sportsman of the Year gong at the Laureus World Sports Awards 2021 which will be held virtually in early May.

Seoul 1988 Olympic champion Bubka - who competed against Duplantis' father and coach Greg - is a Laureus Academy and International Olympic Committee member, and the pair recently spoke in depth about pole vaulting, the postponement of the Tokyo Games and the young athlete's future goals.

The Ukrainian is considered the greatest pole vaulter in history after winning six consecutive world titles and setting no fewer than 35 world records.

Sergey Bubka: Hi, Mondo. How's training? How's your focus for Tokyo?

Mondo Duplantis: It’s good. I'm just starting back right now to training from the indoor season. I took a week off. I feel good. I'm healthy, so I think that's the most important thing and I have a couple of months before my next competition, so just trying to stay healthy and get in some good shape before the outdoor season.

Bubka: How do you feel to be nominated for Sportsman of the Year at the Laureus Awards?

Duplantis: It's pretty surreal. I can't really comprehend it in my mind that everything happened the way it did last season. When you go and you're up for an award where you're going against not only the best athletes even in your event or sport, the best athletes across the entire world and every sport, it's hard to comprehend. I don't even know how to explain it.

Bubka: Congratulations on your nomination. Maybe you can share your feelings about your world record? How do you feel? What do you see for your future?

Duplantis: It's still a pretty cool thing for me, because I grew up pole vaulting at such a young age. When I was four, five, six years old and I was watching videos of you, it seemed like it was impossible feats, really. It just seemed so far away, and then I grew up watching Renaud (Lavillenie) as well. You're all just two of my biggest idols.

As the years kept going on, and I started getting closer and closer to around that six-metre barrier, you know, the dream started to become a little bit more of a reality. After the 2019 season, 6m was my highest jump, but I just felt like there were a lot of things that I could improve upon and there were some things that I could do to be able to get over 6.17, 6.18.

It's such a special mark. A lot of that is because of you, because you set the bar so high, but we don't have that many world record holders in the past 20 years at least, I mean, of course, before then they were breaking them all the time. So it's really difficult even to break the world record, and so, you know, it's quite an elite group to be in if you're a world record holder of this event.

Whether I break it again or somebody else breaks it again, for me, I'll always have achieved it and it's always going to be a really special thing for me. Especially the first time I did it, when I did 6.17, it's probably one of the most special meets I've had so far.

There's still quite a few things I need to do if I want to catch you, but hopefully this career has just started and I'm able to achieve a lot more things.

Bubka: Of course, I think you had fantastic special feelings when you broke the record first time. I believe for the future it is also possible to jump higher, and your vaults really show that. What is your goal? What do you want to achieve?

Duplantis: Of course, I want to jump as high as possible, but a really important thing for me now in my career is I want to win the championship meets. I came up a little short in 2019, I was second in the World Championships and so, of course, that's a meet that I want to win and to win several times.

I think the big goal right now is the Olympics. It's the biggest event in track and field, it's the pinnacle of our sport. So I want to go in there and I want to be able to come away with the gold because I think it's just really important if you want to leave your legacy as one of the best pole vaulters to live.

The main thing for me right now is, after I broke the world record, of course, try to do it some more, but it's those championship meets, because I think you've got to be able to get it done when it counts. You know, you have to be able to perform when the moment is the most important.

Bubka: How have you managed to train and organise competitions with the pandemic?

Duplantis: It was pretty tough, because I was just coming off the indoor season where I broke the world record twice and I was pretty much just on top of the world. I felt fantastic jumping and just everything, the rhythm on the run and everything just felt really great and then, two weeks later, everything shut down. No competitions, everything's postponed.

Really, I was just lost, I didn't know what to do. I went back to Louisiana, where I'm from, and I was just trying to figure out what the next step was, because the training facilities were closed. I train at the local university here, and that was closed so I couldn't train there. They wouldn't allow me even on any of the high school tracks.

So I was just trying to think of what I should do, and I took it almost like a little bit of an off-season. I spent a lot of time with my family. I have two older brothers that I don't get to see that much; they were back home, since they're usually travelling around as well. It was one of those times where I just took a step back from pole vault, took a step back from the sport and really just focused on my friends and my family at the time; whoever was around me at the time when I was in Lafayette, Louisiana, and we just got those relationships back rolling.

Even though it was a really bad situation, and I would say I didn't get into my tiptop shape because I wasn't able to train as much, it was good mentally because I got to have strong relationships with my family and step away from the sport when it was starting to become pretty chaotic after breaking the record.

Bubka: I would like to ask you about Tokyo. As you mentioned, last year it was postponed and it was difficult to find the motivation. In 1984, Los Angeles, I lost my dream to complete in the Olympics because of boycotts. In your case, it's a little bit different but it also was tough. I understand how tough it was.

I think it is very important for you to keep the motivation and, of course, I wish you good luck in the Olympics, because this is something unique. There is nothing to compare with the Olympic Games. For you it will be your first Games?

Duplantis: Yes, it'll be my first one and I think the main thing for me is keeping the motivation and the excitement and... it's going to happen. You know, the Olympics was still going to happen. It was tough at first, it just felt like it was going to be so far away. But I tried to just keep training, keep competing, stay in shape and now we're here, now we're four months out or so, we're getting closer and closer and it's not quite like a boycott where you don't even have the chance.

I'm grateful and I know that I have the chance, and I know that my situation's a lot better than a lot of other people in these tough times, in these pandemic times. So I'm grateful for what we have, and I appreciate you guys for figuring out a way to make this thing still happen. I'll try to go out there and do my best and do something special.

Bubka: I wish you good luck and to get this glory, to feel this value of Olympic victory and you have a fantastic great chance. Do your best, keep motivation and, of course, make your family and fans of athletics happy and proud.

Duplantis: I appreciate that. Can I ask you a few questions? Were you ever on 5.30m poles?

Bubka: No. In that time my maximum grip was around 5.15m. But for that era to use such long poles, it was a really big change. The grip mostly was around maximum 5m. This was already a really new era of pole vaulting.

Duplantis: What kind of flex? (NB: the higher the flex number, the softer the pole)

Bubka: My best flex was 10.4. But basically it was between 11.2 and 10.6; 11.0 this is the most. 10.6, 10.4, I used when I cleared 6.14 metres.

Duplantis: That was in Sestriere?

Bubka: Yes, in Sestriere, exactly. (NB: When Bubka set his last world record in 1995)

Duplantis: That's super cool. When I jumped 6.17 it was 12.3 and then 6.18 was 12.1, so that's super similar. I don't know about the 10.4, but maybe one day! Maybe one day.