For a man so familiar with life above six meters, Mondo Duplantis looked unusually earthbound on Friday evening. The crowd in Monte Carlo, attuned to the rhythm of his success, leaned in each time the bar climbed. Yet when it reached 6.29 meters, one centimeter above his current world record, the magic wavered. Three misses followed, and once again, the record remained out of reach.
The reigning Olympic champion had cleared 6.05 meters, setting a new meet record and eclipsing the previous mark held by Piotr Lisek since 2019. That vault secured Duplantis the win, his sixteenth consecutive Diamond League victory. Yet as he stood on the runway preparing for another world record attempt, the expression on his face hinted at something more complicated than focus. It spoke of calculation, risk, and, by his own admission, a quiet fear.
Duplantis spoke openly about the mental preparation required before each jump. “Throughout the competition I think about all kind of things,” he said. “But I try not to overthink the jump too much. I try to just relax and come up with a type of clarity in my head with what I want to accomplish on the next jump and then I just kind of trust this to happen,” the Olympic gold medalist further continued. That equilibrium, he suggested, remains delicate. The discipline that once made the task mechanical has begun to shift under the weight of expectation.
The statement, offered with candor, marked a departure from his typical polish. It was a glimpse into the psychological tug that now accompanies these record attempts. A form of tension that is harder to conquer than gravity. His remarks also underscored how close the margins have become. “Karalis was amazing today,” he said, nodding to the Greek vaulter who reached 5.92 meters and pushed him in the early rounds. “If he would have made it [6.10], then I would have had to jump 6.15. The competition is there. I just need to keep jumping the way I can jump, then I know that I can be good,” Duplantis reflected.
MAGIC IN FOR MONDO
Duplantis impresses once again as he steals another #DiamondLeague record
He vaulted 6.05m to secure the #MonacoDL pic.twitter.com/24t3NIP0Qe
— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) July 11, 2025
In that phrasing, Duplantis acknowledged not only the external challenge, but the internal rhythm he is trying to preserve. Something increasingly fragile the higher the bar climbs. Even in moments of frustration, Duplantis remains methodical. He described his recovery process with a sense of ritual. “I just sleep in to recover from my competitions. I think recovering physically is the most important thing. Mentally, I just need a day or two and then I feel I am ready again.”
That readiness is not a guarantee, but a discipline he rehearses continually. “For me, I can’t lose a competition. I got to make sure I am always ready because I know those guys want to beat me,” Duplantis echoed with resilience. Outside the stadium, Duplantis finds space in his music. An outlet that, according to him, serves as both a distraction and a companion. “I spend a lot of time on music actually,” he said. “It takes a lot of work to finish it. I get obsessed with it and I think it’s a really good thing for me because I can just block out everything else.” That intensity, whether on the runway or in a recording studio, appears to stem from the same internal engine. A need to be excellent, and a fear of slipping just below that threshold.
For now, the world record stays where it is, and Duplantis remains the man closest to it. But each new attempt carries more weight than the last. Not only because of the height, but because of what it asks him to overcome. However, despite missing out on a world record in Monaco, Duplantis has made a habit of the same now. Till now, he has broken the world record 12 times, and he found the time and energy to do something completely different at the same time! And his last world record came in front of a packed home crowd.
How Mondo Duplantis broke world record for 12th time with historic leap in Stockholm
It was not the eruption of noise that marked the moment, nor the stream of flashbulbs across the Stockholm evening, but rather the enduring silence before takeoff, a hush drawn not from doubt, but reverence. Armand Duplantis, poised as if time itself had slowed to await him, cleared 6.28 metres at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium on June 15, 2025. In doing so, he bettered his own world record for the twelfth time, this instance unfolding in the very city where he spent his formative years.
Mondo Duplantis (Image Credit: Instagram/@mondo_duplantis)
The jump, an exacting test of rhythm and nerve, came after Duplantis had already secured victory at the Wanda Diamond League meet. With the crowd pressed into their seats and his name already inked atop the leaderboard, the 25-year-old turned his attention inward. “It’s a magical feeling, it’s hard to explain” he said after landing cleanly on the mat. Duplantis further added, “I wanted this so bad. I wanted to do this in front of everybody here in Stockholm. It felt like really something special in the crowd today and I knew that everybody really wanted to see it too. It’ll be one of the greatest memories for me, I think, in my career.” He had promised in the lead-up to attempt a record clearance if conditions allowed. True to form, he delivered, not with flourish, but with precision.
Kurtis Marschall of Australia mounted a measured challenge, reaching 5.90 metres before three failed attempts at the six-metre mark effectively cleared the stage. From that point, the evening belonged to Mondo Duplantis. He took the runway alone, with the bar raised higher than any athlete had previously mastered on home ground. The setting was both familiar and historic, and as he planted the pole and vaulted into record books yet again, the outcome felt less like surprise than inevitability.
The post Mondo Duplantis Admits Fear of Falling After Another Missed Shot at the World Record appeared first on EssentiallySports.
