“Why is Mondo Duplantis so good at what he does?” asks Kurt via email – which is surely the question all his competitors have been asking for the past decade.
Aside from all the hard work, dedication and sacrifice, I would say being the son of a pole vaulter and a heptathlete has something to do with it. Duplantis grew up in the United States – he was pole-vaulting aged four and had broken the under-12 world record by the age of 10.
Duplantis is chilling out on the infield at the moment, all tracksuited up, having a good laugh with his main rival Karalis. The rest of the field are slogging their way through the lower heights.
He’s probably got time to work on some lyrics – ‘Mondo’ made his music debut earlier this year.