The art of sport is to make even the greatest difficulty look easy. The boxer Muhammad Ali beat up his opponents while dancing, the footballer Franz Beckenbauer ran off his opponents with grandeur, the tennis player Roger Federer won his games easily and casually. There are many more examples. A very current one is Armand Duplantis. The man is only 22 years old and is currently the most amazing figure in athletics. Especially since he practices the discipline that is considered the most difficult of all in the core Olympic sport: the pole vault.
Almost two weeks ago he jumped the height of 6.19 meters in Belgrade and improved his own world record by one centimeter. He did this again with his characteristic simplicity. While other muscle-packed and panting jumpers bend their bars and every sequence of the jump attempt looks like an effort, Duplantis scurries across the track like a greyhound and seconds later flies over the pole like a little bird.
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“The lightness is just impressive,” says Christine Adams. The 48-year-old is the leading national coach in German pole vaulting. She hopes that the German jumpers Torben Blech and Oleg Zernikel will sell well this weekend at the World Indoor Championships – again in Belgrade. From a German perspective, this meant jumps of around 5.80 meters. So the power gap to Duplantis is about forty centimeters. In the pole vault they are worlds. Adams has seen many pole vaulters. But someone like Armand Duplantis? “No, he’s in a league of his own.”
Duplantis was born with the talent and the joy of the special and difficult discipline. He grew up in Lafayette, a city in the US state of Louisiana. Even as a small child, he practiced with a broomstick in the living room. At the age of seven he jumped his first records.
What is the secret of Armand Duplantis
But not only talent and joy made him a great jumper. As with many exceptional athletes, Duplantis benefited from the encouragement of his parents. His father Greg was a professional pole vaulter, his mother Helena a successful heptathlete for Sweden. Because of his mother’s origin, Duplantis starts for Sweden. The support even went so far that Greg and Helena Duplantis had a high jump facility built for their son just a few meters away from their parents’ house. Under these conditions, a giant in the high jump quickly grew up, even more talented than the pole vault icon Sergej Bubka.
“This is just the beginning,” said Duplantis after his world record a few days ago in Belgrade, which he now wants to surpass at the same place. National coach Adams is also convinced that there is more to come. “He already jumped 6.05 meters as a teenager. That means there should be more potential than 10 or 15 centimeters above it,” she says.
Much has been puzzled about what might be the secret of the miracle jumper’s success. His quick run-up, the hard stick he uses, or his seamless transition from run-up to jump. It is probably the interaction of all elements. But Adams also believes that none of his competitors can learn anything from him. “He started doing it when he was a little boy. That sets him apart from everyone else,” she says. He has perfected the jump and no longer has to think much when he jumps. “If anything can stop him, it’s injuries because the stress on his body, his joints and his back is high from the extreme way he’s jumping. Even if it looks so easy with him at first glance.”
He now wants to tackle the 6.20 meters, Duplantis promised a week and a half ago in Belgrade. The record should already fall in the final fight on Sunday. His only reasonably serious challenger is probably the American Chris Nilsen, who recently jumped over 6.05 meters in Rouen. This was an absolute pinnacle in the pre-Duplantis era, a height that earned well over 90 percent victory. For the World Championships in Belgrade, 6.05 meters should almost certainly mean second place. Because: “Duplantis can only beat itself”, the German national coach Adams is convinced.
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