Mondo Duplantis breaks pole vault world record in gold-medal performance at Olympics

SAINT-DENIS, France — Mondo Duplantis broke his own pole vault world record Monday night at the Olympics, clearing 6.25 meters (20 feet, 6 inches) to cap his second straight gold-medal performance on the sport’s biggest stage.

Duplantis cleared the mark on his third and final try. It marked the ninth time the Louisiana-born 24-year-old, who competes for his mother’s native Sweden, has broken the record but the first time at the Olympics.

Duplantis’ string of breaking records, each time by one centimeter, started Feb. 8, 2020. His previous record came April 20 in China.

America’s Sam Kendricks took the silver medal and Emmanouli Karalis of Greece bronze.

After Duplantis had the victory sealed by clearing 6.10, he had the bar moved to one centimeter higher than the world-record height. After his first miss, he used a break while Noah Lyles was receiving the gold medal for his 100-meter victory the night before, to study video with his parents on a tablet.

Another miss ensued, then another long break.

All of the other events were over, but most of the crowd, including the king and queen of Sweden, stayed in the arena, singing along to the French song “Alleur de Feu” — “Light the Fire” — and clapping in rhythm.

Duplantis teetered on a foam roller, removed his shoes, then put them back on. Finally, he lined up for the last try and cleared it, then went sprinting toward the stands to celebrate the close of another memorable night at the Olympic track and field meet.

Duplantis was the closing act on a night that included an upset by Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet in the women’s 5,000 meters. One of the world’s best distance runners, Chebet’s Kenyan teammate Faith Kipyegon got disqualified after she traded elbows with world-record holder Gudaf Tsegay, with two laps left.

Kipyegon’s ouster elevated Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands to a silver medal. Hassan also will race in the 10,000 and marathon, trying to duplicate her three distance medals from the Tokyo Games.

Lyles returned to the track the day after his memorable win in the 100 meters to start the quest for his second gold, this one in the 200.

He won his opening heat in 20.19 seconds, then stuck around to receive his gold medal.

He said he did it all on only a little more than 4 hours of sleep.

“I had to stop watching the race,” he said of his decision to call it a night at 2:45 a.m. after his win. “Throughout the day, it’s kind of just been meandering trying to get the body started, jump starting it.”

Val Allman won her second straight Olympic gold in the discus with a throw of 69.50 meters to easily top China’s Feng Bin.

The medals from Allman and Kendricks gave the U.S. 11 in the meet, including three golds. That’s five more than second-place China and The Netherlands.

​Keely Hodgkinson captured Britain’s first gold medal of the track meet, winning the 800 meters in 1:56.72.

This gold goes with the silver she took behind Athing Mu in 2021. Mu did not qualify for the Olympics after getting tripped up during the U.S. trials.