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Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis set a world record while winning the men’s gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Monday, defending his title from the Tokyo Games. After easily beating the competition, including silver medalist American Sam Kendricks, Duplantis decided to continue, breaking the Olympic record and eventually setting a new world record of 6.25 meters.
Beyond the athletic achievement, Duplantis earned a nice payday for the new mark. Sweden doesn’t pay its athletes for winning Olympic medals, but the superstar pole vaulter has been receiving cash bonuses of between $30,000 and $100,000 from his sponsors for each time he has broken the world record. This was the ninth time Duplantis set a new world record. Most recently, he cleared 6.24 meters in April.
King of the World
Duplantis, 24, was born in Louisiana to an American father and Swedish mother, and attended LSU. However, he has represented Sweden in international competitions since 2015. His older brother, Antoinne, played baseball at LSU. Duplantis is dating Swedish model Desiré Inglander.
The star Olympian hasn’t gotten much sleep since Monday’s performance. “Too hard,” he told reporters when asked if he had been partying to celebrate the latest achievement. “But I had pretty much all of my family and also some of my closest childhood friends that hadn’t seen me compete since I was in high school. We enjoyed the night.”
