The 2023 edition of the Wanda Diamond League Meeting de Paris was historic, with two world records (Faith Kipyegon in the 5,000 m and Lamecha Girma in the 3,000 m steeplechase) and a world best performance of all time (Jakob Ingebrigtsen over 2 miles) in a fully booked stadium. So, what better way to reach new heights in athletics than the presence of Mondo Duplantis in the Charléty Stadium on Sunday 7 July 2024? The pole-vaulter is the first star to form part of the line-up for this French Athletics Federation (FFA) meet.
The presence of the Olympic and double world champion, as well as World Athletics’ Athlete of the Year in 2020, 2022 and 2023, is an event in itself. Indeed, every time he hits the track, the Swede has the potential to make a bid for the world record he has held onto since 2020, when he cleared 6.17 m in Toruń (Poland), extending it centimetre by centimetre over the course of an irresistible ascent. The last time he raised his game again was on 20 April at the Wanda Diamond League Meeting in Xiamen, China. After dominating the winter season, without actually reaching his usual standards, Mondo Duplantis made a thundering comeback to outdoor competition by clearing 6.24 m on his first attempt. He then racked up another victory in Suzhou (China) on 27 April thanks to a jump of six metres.
6.01 m in 2021 in Paris
A bar that is as symbolic as it is legendary, the 24-year-old athlete, coached by his father Greg, has successfully cleared it in (nearly) every one of his performances (49 times already!), a fact that thrills spectators, including those packed into the grandstands of the Charléty Stadium on 28 August 2021. On that particular day, swept up by the energy of a frenzied crowd, he secured the meeting record with a best jump of 6.01 m, before having an unsuccessful crack at 6.19 m, which was one centimetre higher than his world record at the time. The brand-new Olympic champion in Tokyo, mentally he had seemed evasive and a little fuzzy two days earlier in Lausanne (4th with 5.62 m), before soaring again in the French capital. “It was very important for me to switch straight back to ‘victory’ mode, he whispered into the journalist’s microphone immediately after his 6.01 m. So how do things differ from Lausanne? Well, that’s down to you, the public.”
On Sunday 7 July, with less than a month until the Olympic athletics events kick off in the Stade de France and some three years after his last appearance in Charléty, Mondo Duplantis will be pitted against France’s top pole-vaulters, who are sure to be able to count on the support of a fusion of fans crammed into the arena. That said, there is absolutely no doubt that the Swedish athlete will also be entitled to a very warm welcome and one that is equal to his immense talent and his showmanship.
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