Chasing Mondo Duplantis: In Olympic pole vault, a trio of Americans try to topple a giant (2024)

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For most of Olympic history, the United States dominated men’s pole vault — which has been part of the Games since the inaugural event in 1896. The U.S. has 47 total Olympic medals in the event. The rest of the world combined has 47.

But it’s been 20 years, four Olympic cycles, since the U.S. last won men’s pole-vault gold. Oddly enough, this summer, recapturing American supremacy requires dethroning an American.

Armand Duplantis is a veritable giant. He was born, raised and groomed for the sport in Lafayette, La. However, he vaults for Sweden’s flag as a dual citizen with the Scandinavian country. So he’s half Louisianan, half Swedish. Crawfish köttbullar.

He’s the best pole vaulter in the world. The best of all time. He’s five feet, 11 inches tall, 174 pounds of lean muscle. His more relevant height: 6.24 meters, or 20 feet, five inches — his current world record. But his stature has grown so monumentally, he is now a one-name figure.

Mondo.

America boasts three worthy candidates for toppling the giant: Chris Nilsen, Sam Kendricks and K.C. Lightfoot. It will require significant ascension to conquer Mondo, who, aside from national colors, is one of them.

“It would be a much easier time trying to beat him if he was, you know, a d—,” said Nilsen. “But he’s not. He’s such a nice guy and he’s a good friend. And he’s a good man. So it’s hard to hate him.”

Nilsen, 26, is the reigning Olympic silver medalist. He jumped a personal best 5.97 meters on one try in Tokyo. But he missed all three attempts to clear 6.02, which Duplantis did on his first attempt to win gold. Finishing second in his Olympic debut was quite the feat. Since then, Nilsen has bested Duplantis twice — including last July in Monaco.

Kendricks, 31, is a two-time world champion, an Olympic bronze medalist and resident OG since French legend Renaud Lavillenie’s defeat to Father Time. But Kendricks, known to school young Mondo on his rise to greatness, couldn’t face Duplantis in Tokyo three years ago. Kendricks tested positive for COVID-19 and was sequestered in a hotel room for the competition. After placing third in Rio in 2016, Kendricks trained five years for another shot at gold only to wind up in a concierge prison.

Lightfoot, 24, is the youngster teeming with talent and enough confidence to scoff at limitations. He finished fourth in Tokyo, at 21. Currently, no American has ever jumped higher than his 6.07 meters, cleared last June.

But if any of them take down Mondo, it will be thanks to the sum of them. This trio of America’s best men’s pole vaulters are not only best of friends but irons sharpening one another.

For two Olympic trial cycles, these three have been intertwined as the nation’s best. They enter the 2024 edition, starting June 21 at the University of Oregon, as a team within the team. They are professionals who compete together and complement each other and, thus, learn from each other. Their camaraderie and respective greatness fuel their individual growth.

“My wife,” Kendricks began, his Oxford, Miss., twang adding color to the anecdote, “She’s like, ‘Sam, why are all of your friends either bigger than you, taller than you, more handsome than you? Why are they more talented than you? And they talk. They’re aggressive. They talk really loud. They eat everything. Why do you only make friends like that?’ And I said because those are the interesting people in life. … That’s what we do. We come through. We raid the kitchen. We train harder every day. We sleep hard every night. And I think that’s kind of joyous in itself.”

America took gold in men’s pole vault in each of the first 16 Olympics — along with silver in nine of those — before its run ended in 1972. East Germany’s Wolfgang Nordwig beat defending Olympic champion Bob Seagren at the Munich Games, an upset marked by the controversial late banning of America’s fiberglass poles.

Since then, Americans have won just two pole-vault gold medals: Nick Hysong at the 2000 Sydney Games and Timothy Mack at the 2004 Athens Games. Over the last 13 Olympics, including Munich, the U.S. men have totaled 12 medals.

But, for the first time in a generation, the greatness of USA men’s pole vault seems resurrected.

America’s three best all rank in the top 7 in the world: Nilsen third, Kendricks fourth and Lightfoot sixth. They are three of the nine active pole vaulters who have eclipsed the elite 6-meter mark. Only Duplantis has jumped higher than them.

“Capability-wise,” Nilsen said, “when it comes to Sam, K.C. and I, there has never been a more mashed-up trio of American vaulters in the history of America. So I think any one of us three could get a medal or all three of us could get a medal.”

All three understand the greatness of Mondo. But their philosophy is to put relentless pressure on him. “Make Him Jump“ is the unofficial motto — meaning push him to dig for his absolute best. The higher they force him to go, the greater the chance he’ll have an off day.

“And Mondo knows if he ever has a falling point,” Kendricks said, “me, Chris or K.C., we’re gonna snag that gold medal. We surely will.”

A bit about Duplantis.

He’s broken the world record eight times in a little over four years, the last coming when he set the current mark of 6.24 meters in April. Before him, the previous eight times the world record was broken spanned 23 years. Seven were by Sergey Bubka, originally of the Soviet Union, then Ukraine after it gained its independence. Bubka broke the world record 14 times between 1984 and 1994. Lavillenie, who Mondo grew up idolizing, took the throne from Bubka at 6.16 meters in 2014. It stood for six years before Mondo jumped 6.17. He’s added 0.07 meters (or 2 3/4 inches) since.

What makes Mondo so special, first and foremost, is his early start. His father, Greg, was a pole vaulter from Baton Rouge. He finished fifth in the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, a bad day ending his bid for an Olympics. The Brennan Robideaux documentary “Born to Fly” — a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Duplantis from high school to world-record holder — chronicles how the elder Duplantis poured all of his knowledge into his son. Mondo was jumping in kindergarten.

Also, the physical tools. In addition to his father being an elite athlete, Mondo’s mother, Helena, was a Swedish heptathlete and volleyball player. Her father was also an athlete and pole vaulter. Helena went to college at LSU, which is how she met Greg.

So Mondo is practically a GMO for pole vault. The benefits of genetics and being trained by professionals his entire life is evident when he competes.

“He’s just so fast down the runway,” Lightfoot said. “He’s faster than all of us by quite a bit. … Speed equals height in pole vault.”

He dominated his levels through high school such that competition was scarce. After one year at LSU, he turned pro.

With the Olympics a month away, he is at the peak of his powers. At his first event in June, a Diamond League meet in Stockholm, he attempted to break the world record again, just missing 6.25 meters. His technique is refined by five years of professional experience and some 20 years in the sport.

“I feel like Mondo is the perfect mix between strength and finesse and speed,” Nilsen said. “And he’s been pole vaulting since he was 5. So he’s got kind of everything in a basket that he needs.”

Pole vault, however, isn’t about what you’ve done in the past, or what you can do. Especially in big events like the Olympics, it’s about what you have on the day that matters. A litany of variables, from weather to technique to mindset, can influence the outcome at a meet.

Medals are won by whoever puts it all together, who survives the elements, who rises to the occasion.

Kendricks is dangerous in this regard. The Army Reserve first lieutenant and Ole Miss legend went pro in 2015 has been competing across the globe for a decade now. He’s won the Diamond League — an annual series of 15 elite events — twice. The experience is evident in his approach and adaptability. He’s a model of consistency and an ultra-competitor.

“I would say his strength, especially right now since he is getting older,” Lightfoot said, smiling as he paused, then leaned into the age jab. “I’m not gonna say anything bad about my boy Sam, but he is getting older. Sam is just a veteran. He’s really good under pressure. A very finesse jumper. He’s also really fast. … He is a professional in the sport and has been for a long time. So he knows his way around, you know? He knows what to do.”

Kendricks has been a model for Nilsen and Lightfoot. His discipline, his professionalism, his relentlessness — Kendricks sets the standard.

And he’s about tired of losing to Mondo.

“It’s a tough time to be in the sport,” Kendricks said, “because sometimes being really good is not good enough. I’ve been second so many times since 2020 that they actually started calling me the ‘World’s Greatest Loser.’ … But that means I’m in the game, right? I’m in the game.”

Nilsen — who grew up a soccer player in Kansas City before trying pole vault in the eighth grade — is certainly an intriguing candidate to take down Mondo. He’s unique because he’s 6-foot-5 — uncanny height for the sport. But his size offers advantages.

For starters, it aids his grip on the pole and the angle at which it enters the box.

‘The best way to be a better pole vaulter,” Nilsen said, “is to get on a big-ass stick and grip as high as you possibly can on it. … I can grip almost a foot higher than the rest of my competitors, and that gives me a little bit of an edge because I’m not as light so I’m not going to fly over the bars as easily as they do.”

Being a big, powerful dude is advantageous. Running with a pole heavier than you weigh, and keeping it straight, demands impressive strength.

Size matters in terms of the pole and its flex (or bend capacity). Nilsen’s size and strength allow him to have the control necessary for good technique and generate kinetic energy for his plant and upward swing.

“He is a power on the runway,” Lightfoot said. “That’s not somebody you want to run up on accidentally. He’ll make one of those viral little YouTube clips. He’s a big boy and can get on some big poles and jump really high.”

The trick for Nilsen has been finding his calm. He was a foam-at-the-mouth type, brimming with rage. Screaming. Summoning his might and roaring away the anxiety. But he’s worked on managing the volatility.

On the runway, he learned to find his center. Harness energy, not waste it. Locate the joy as much as the agony.

Nilsen’s still a “bull in a china shop” when he trains. It’s something Lightfoot has picked up on — how to go hard in training.

“K.C. can train his way to the American record,” Kendricks said. “That sounds like an obvious thing. But most of the time, people need to compete and they need a ton of experience. K.C. literally is so confident and so talented that he could stay at home, train in his mom’s basem*nt and go break the American record that I’ve been forging for years. He’s that talented, in a vacuum.”

Of the three, Lightfoot is perhaps the most prodigious.

At 6-foot-2, his natural talent is only surpassed currently by his youthful invincibility. He is the ultimate finesse jumper, the most technical of the three.

He could’ve perhaps played any sport he wanted. He’s an avid golfer. He’s been known to throw a beautiful football spiral. He’s got the ideal physique for volleyball. But when he was a teenager, his parents built a pole vault runway in their backyard in Missouri. He was hooked. He starred at Lee’s Summit High School before Baylor University. He made the Olympic team in 2021.

Now he’s a professional. It’s impossible to know his ceiling.

“Put anything in his hands that’s revolving around sports and he’ll just kill it,” Nilsen said of Lightfoot. “He’s born with God’s hand pushing him everywhere he goes. That’s K.C. in a nutshell. He’s just good at everything — which sucks for me.”

Lightfoot’s got the swag to go with the talent. The fly caps. The necklace with the cross medallion. The chill demeanor. The magnetic charm.

Still, he’s often the butt of the jokes in the crew. Homie hazing.

“Now,” Kendricks said, “K.C. may call me old a thousand different kinds of ways. But he still came up to get my picture when he was 14 at the Reno Pole Vault Summit.”

Before they take on Mondo, the American trio must make it to Paris.

While Nilsen, Kendricks and Lightfoot are clearly America’s three best, with the data to prove it, they must get through the Olympic trials. The same hope they have of taking down Mondo in Paris makes each one of them vulnerable in Eugene.

Zach McWhorter, ranked No. 12 in the world, is perfectly capable of a big day, especially if one of the best has an off day. Jacob Wooten is ranked No. 15 in the world and Austin Miller is No. 20. Clayton Frisch (No. 23) and Zachery Bradford (No. 24) give America eight jumpers in the top 25 in the world.

America has never sent the same three men’s pole vaulters to consecutive Olympics.

One of the criticisms Duplantis faced when he chose to represent his maternal home nation instead of America was the accusation that he took the easier route by avoiding the U.S. Olympic trials. Sweden chooses based on overall record over the years.

The expectation is for the star trio to handle business and earn America’s three spots in Paris. Then they face the giant.

“We don’t chase Mondo,” Kendricks said. “Mondo has been chasing us for years. Mondo has been chasing us ever since he was 7 and he had posters of us on his wall. Right? But that’s why Mondo’s so likable because he’s part of the sport. You don’t get to be a world-record holder unless you have a bunch of guys to compete with. And I think that’s super special no matter how good you get. You still need the other guys. And he won’t win forever.”

(Top illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Ben Stansall /AFP / Getty Images, Patrick Smith / Getty Images)