CNN
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Few athletes can declare to be as dominant of their self-discipline as Mondo Duplantis, the pole vault star who has damaged the world document a staggering seven occasions.

His newest document of 6.23 meters, achieved eventually 12 months’s world championships, is seven centimeters larger than anybody else has managed within the historical past of the game, a testomony to his supremacy within the pole vault over the previous 4 years.

Duplantis’ medal haul can also be spectacular, boasting an Olympic gold and 4 world championship titles – two indoor and two out of doors – together with his sights set on additional Olympic success in Paris later this 12 months.

And as for world data, Duplantis guarantees that he’s not achieved but.

“I believe within the close to future, I hope to simply elevate it up as little as I can as a result of I believe that’s all I must do for a world document,” he tells CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies. “I do know that I can bounce larger. I do know that I’ve larger heights in me.

“I do know what I must do to get into these 6.30-type marks … I wish to be dominant within the sport as a result of I do know that’s what I’m able to, making an attempt to win each competitors and get probably the most out of myself at each meet that I’m at.

“If I’m in a position to bounce excessive, bounce a world document, then that’s only a cherry on high.”

Sporting pedigree runs within the Duplantis household: his father was a former high pole vaulter and his mom a heptathlete who competed for Sweden.

He has been pole vaulting for nearly so long as he may stroll, taking his first steps within the sport as a three-year-old in his dad and mom’ yard in Lafayette, Louisiana, the place a runway, bar and crash mat have been put in for him and his siblings to make use of.

Whereas most athletes would take up the game of their teenage years, it has been a lifelong affair for Duplantis, his childhood pastime steadily morphing right into a profitable profession.

He won’t ever tire, he explains, of the sensation of climbing into the air, bending his physique over a bar and falling again right down to earth.

“It’s particular, and I believe that it’s so laborious to check to most issues,” he says. “However while you get it proper, it’s such as you’re type of doing this little dance with the pole.

“It occurs quick. I really feel like once I’m on my sport and I’m dialed in and all the pieces’s within the place the place it must be then it’s tremendous cool. It’s like using a wave.”

One of many extra technical occasions in observe and discipline, pole vault requires a novel mix of velocity, power and adaptability, although the psychological facet, says Duplantis, is simply as vital because the bodily calls for.

“You must be slightly bit – or fairly a bit – loopy to have the ability to dare to pole vault as a result of it’s a little little bit of a freaky sport, in a manner,” he explains.

“You must have the center to have the ability to push your self, and also you’re going to be uncomfortable a variety of the time while you’re going as much as stiffer poles, longer poles, making an attempt new heights, new obstacles on a regular basis.”

Born and raised in Louisiana, Duplantis has twin Swedish and American citizenship however competes for his mom’s native nation on the worldwide circuit.

He’s the robust favourite to defend his gold medal on the Paris Olympics, which formally start on July 26, however needed to work laborious to win a second indoor world title final month after failing twice at 5.85m – a peak he would often anticipate to clear with ease.

Ultimately, he managed to document a world-leading 6.05m, 15 centimeters larger than American Sam Kendricks in second and 20 away from Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in third.

Duplantis later admitted that it was the toughest he had ever needed to work in a contest, although he shall be hoping that his occasions are extra smooth-sailing as he embarks on the out of doors season with the Olympics looming.

However when issues don’t go as deliberate, Duplantis would do effectively to remind himself of his lengthy historical past with the pole vault, regardless that the stakes are actually larger and the audiences are a lot greater than when he first took up the game.

“It’s nonetheless the identical previous pole vault,” he says. “The identical occasion I’ve been doing since I used to be only a tiny little child leaping in my yard. I’m getting higher because the 12 months goes on which is a very cool factor. I’m positively dwelling my dream.”