30 March, 2024

“I know the level is only going to get higher”

Photo: Thomas Windestam

In the first part of an exclusive interview with diamondleague.com, Olympic champion and world record holder Mondo Duplantis talks about his hopes for the upcoming Wanda Diamond League season and the battle to stay at the top of the men’s pole vault.

Mondo Duplantis, you’ve just defended your World Athletics Indoor Championships title and you’re now shaping up for the Wanda Diamond League season, which kicks off in a few weeks’ time. How are you feeling?
I feel good. It was quite a short indoor season for me, which was the plan because I'm starting the outdoor season quite early with the two meets in Xiamen and Suzhou. Right now I'm just back in the United States for a little bit before I prep for those two meetings in China. So yeah, everything is where it should be and I am excited for the outdoor season to start.

This will be your first time competing in China. What are you expecting?
It’s always fun to go to new places and have new experiences. They had the Diamond League in Xiamen last year and it looked like a very beautiful stadium and a cool place to compete. I think it's super nice that we're going to have the two meets back to back. We're going to be there for about a week or a week and a half in total, so I guess we’ll be able to see the cities a little bit. It’s amazing where the sport can take you, and it’s great for us pole vaulters, because we’re all road dogs. We like to travel together so long as we get to jump at the highest level.

What can we expect from you in China?
I think that we're going to try to hit both of them hard. The indoor season was ok for me. I had a bit of a sloppy performance at World Indoors, but I was still able to kind of get the job done when I needed to and win gold. So I feel quite hungry going into the outdoor season, and I want to start it off with a bang also. I'm really excited about these two meets coming up. They’re very important not only for the meets themselves, but for preparation for the summer season as a whole and of course for the Olympics.

You said that World Indoors was one of the toughest competitions you've had at that level. How are you feeling looking back on that final now with a bit of distance?
I guess I feel good about it in the sense of the result. Every time I'm out there at a championship meeting, I'm competing for Sweden, then I feel like there's this extra sense of pressure on yourself and because you're kind of carrying the weight of a country. So I’m always grateful to get the job done and bring back the gold. But it was a tough competition: it wasn’t as easy as I would have liked. That’s the nature of sport, and in some ways I guess it makes it more exciting. Although I don’t think my mum and dad wanted it to be exciting in that way! (Laughs).

You’re so used to winning by big margins. Is there any sense that it’s a bit more fun when you suddenly find yourself up against it?
More fun is not the perfect way to put it. Jumping really well is fun. When you’re on autopilot and everything just clicks very naturally: that’s the most fun. But at the same time, that’s just sports. I think when you have these kinds of competitions, it does make you appreciate the ones which come easier a little bit more. It makes you a little bit stronger. It wasn’t the most clean performance, but you learn from that. I think I have a grip on what I need to do to get my performances where I want them for the outdoor season.

Are you expecting it to be tougher to win on the Diamond League circuit this year? Do you think your success is pulling other vaulters up to new levels?
Definitely. Whenever there's somebody who’s excelling at a particular event or a particular sport, then I think everybody else always ups their game and follows in that sense. The pole vault is probably at the highest level that it's ever been, even when you look past my performances. And I know the level is just going to get higher and higher, especially when it's an Olympic year. It just seems to be that everybody just steps their game up to just an entirely different level when the stakes are at their highest.

"Competing in the Diamond League from a young age was so important for my development"

You're aiming for a fourth Diamond League title this year, and it seems you’ve been dominating the circuit forever. Do you remember your first Diamond League meet?
Yep. It was in 2017 in Eugene, Oregon. I had just finished my junior year, which is my second last year of high school, and it was my first time competing against the big dogs like Renaud Lavillenie, Sam Kendricks, Piotr Lisek. I actually jumped quite well. I think I jumped 5.71m, but I had some really good attempts at the 5.81m bar too. I was right in the mix and I think I finished fourth, which gave me this real sense of belonging. I was nervous before, but once I was out on the track, the nerves went away and I knew I could really fight against these guys. It’s crazy to think that is seven years ago now.

You were already a superstar at junior level and you already seemed destined for greatness. Was it still an important milestone to make that jump to Diamond League level?
It was super important. Especially for me, because I was still in high school and I didn’t necessarily have to make that jump at that time. But it was great to mature and compete against the best guys, because I don't think that there's a way to be the best in the world unless you compete against the best. You have to put yourself in those situations where you can feel out what they're doing and what kind of athlete and what kind of jumper that they are in order to figure out how you're going to be able to be better than them. Competing against the best in the world in the Diamond League when I was just 17 was super, super important for my development as an athlete. It made me that much tougher and really carved me into the competitor I am today.

In the second part of our exclusive interview, Mondo Duplantis talks about the joy of competing in Stockholm, breaking the world record in Eugene and chasing Renaud Lavillenie’s record of seven Diamond League titles.