PARIS, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) — Sweden’s Armand Duplantis was lost for words. He had just broken his own world record as he secured a second consecutive Olympic pole vault title in front of almost 70,000 fans at Stade de France, and the euphoria was overwhelming.
“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,” the 24-year-old told a news conference more than an hour after the event had finished. “It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out of body experience. It’s still hard to kind of land right now.
“What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. The biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”
With the session’s other events already completed and his gold medal already secured, Duplantis’ bid for a new world record almost became an event within itself, an unexpected encore following a thrilling night of competition.
Even his competitors cheered him on as he sought to become the first pole vaulter in history to clear 6.25m. Duplantis came agonizingly close with his first two attempts before succeeding with his third and final bid to rapturous applause.
“I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could,” Duplantis said. “The crowd was going crazy. It was so loud in there, it sounded like an American football game.
“I have a little bit of experience being in a 100,000 capacity stadium, but I was never the center of attention. Just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out.”
Few athletes have dominated their respective sports like Duplantis in recent years.
Despite his relative youth, the American-born athlete has already broken the world record nine times and now has two Olympic crowns to go with his two world titles.
His triumph in Paris made Duplantis the first man since American Bob Richards in 1952-1956 to win back-to-back Olympic pole vault gold medals.
“I felt very confident going into today,” he said. “I really wasn’t all that nervous. I don’t know how to explain it. Now I’m quite experienced on the highest stage. Not necessarily everything, but when it came to pole vaulting, I’ve just always had so much confidence in my abilities.
“I felt really prepared. I’ve never been so locked in my life than in these past three months. Now I’m just ready to eat a bunch of food,” he added.
