Mondo Duplantis broke the men’s pole vault world record for an 11th time, clearing 6.27 meters (20 feet, 6 3/4 inches) at an indoor competition in Clermont-Ferrand, France, on Friday.
Duplantis, a 25-year-old Swede who earlier Friday released his first song, “Bop,” has increased the world record by one centimeter all 11 times dating back to 2020, including on four occasions over the last 11 months.
“When I made this song a couple of months ago, I thought this would be a perfect song to jump to here,” he said. “So that was why I rushed really hard to try to get it released for today, because I knew that I would have a chance to break the world record, and I felt like the song would be good for today, too.”
Duplantis adopted the same record-breaking strategy as Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, who maximized bonus money by raising the bar one centimeter at a time on many occasions in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Bubka broke the outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times between 1984 and 1994, before World Athletics shifted to one world record combining indoor and outdoor.
Before Duplantis, the world record was 6.16 meters, set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie in 2014. Lavillenie, who hosts the Clermont-Ferrand event, was the first person to bear hug Duplantis after Friday’s world record.
Duplantis is the two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist. In Paris, he became the first man to break the pole vault world record in an Olympic final since 1980.
Duplantis was born and raised in Louisiana and represents Sweden, where his mom is from.
He has lost just four times since the start of 2020, while racking up more than 70 victories, according to Tilastopaja.org.
6.27 ‼️
— Tommy Åström (@tommyastrom) February 28, 2025
ELFTE världsrekordet i karriären för Mondo Duplantis🙌 efter fullständigt fenomenal hoppning i Frankrike ikväll. Lysande skildrat på SVT av @zetterlund_g och @AlhajiJeng 📺 pic.twitter.com/F2zFwdRrLQ
