Mondo Duplantis on his collegiate connection with Sha'Carri Richardson: 'To see where we are now, it's super special' - Exclusive
The Geaux Tigers connection runs deep for world champions Sha'Carri Richardson and Mondo Duplantis.
With the Olympic Games Paris 2024 just around the bend, the reigning track and field athletics world champs in the women's 100m and men's pole vault, respectively, can trace their global success back to - in part - to their collegiate days, where Duplantis and Richardson competed side-by-side at Lousiana State University.
"It's weird in a way," Duplantis recently told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview at the Stockholm Diamond League in his native Sweden.
"Because I think both of us, we knew we were capable of these kinds of things. But, you know, in sports, not everything pans out the way that you think it is going to."
Duplantis and Richardson both began their LSU careers in 2018, with Mondo winning an NCAA indoor title and Sha'Carri capturing hers outdoors. They were co-finalists for the prestigious Bowerman Award, with Richardson winning the women's honour.
They're set to be two of the biggest names not only in athletics but in all of the Olympics come Paris*.
"I'm so proud of her," Duplantis said of Richardson. "It's such a weird thing to think where we were then, not even just as athletes, [but] as people, too. And then to see where we are now, it's super special."
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- How Sha'Carri Richardson re-invented herself in 2023
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Mondo and Sha'Carri: 'A lot of things have to go your way'
There is a photo of Duplantis and Richardson from the autumn of 2018, when the two began at LSU, the pair standing side-by-side with signs that read "My First Day of College."
Some six years later, Duplantis heads to Paris as not only the reigning world champion but also the Tokyo 2020 Olympic winner and world record holder, having set a new mark (6.24m) in April.
After missing out on the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 while serving a ban for an anti-doping violation, Richardson primed herself for this Olympic season with her headline-grabbing showing at the World Championships last August in Budapest, including a win in the 100m as well as gold in the 4x100m relay and bronze in the 200m.
While Duplantis confirmed that both stars knew they had great talent inside of them, the future is never certain - for any athlete.
"I think to be the best of the best in the world in something, a lot of things have to go your way," he said. "A lot of it is dedication, [but] a lot is outside factors, too."
"It's surreal: Now we're doing what we thought we could do," Duplantis said at last year's Diamond League Final.
"For us to both win the World Championships [in 2023]... it feels like just yesterday that we were both in college. It's pretty cool."