A LIFE IN THE AIR
Mondo Duplantis
b. 1999 · Athlete
Early Life
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was born on November 10, 1999, in Lafayette, Louisiana, to Greg Duplantis, an American former pole vaulter, and Helena Hedlund, a Swedish former heptathlete and volleyball player. His nickname, meaning “world” in Italian, was given to him by a Sicilian friend of his father’s. He grew up with two older brothers and a younger sister, all athletes, in a household built around the sport.
Duplantis began pole vaulting at age four on a training pit set up at his family’s home, and started setting age-group world records by age seven. He won the 2015 World Youth Championships at just 15 years old with a championship-record vault, competing for Sweden as a dual U.S.-Swedish citizen. He graduated from Lafayette High School in 2018, briefly attended LSU, and turned professional in June 2019.
Rise to Fame
Duplantis won Olympic gold at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games with a vault of 6.02 meters, launching him to global recognition. He backed it up at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning gold again and setting a world record of 6.25 meters in the process, making him the first man to win consecutive Olympic pole vault titles since Bob Richards in 1952 and 1956.
Since 2020, Duplantis has broken the world record an astonishing 15 times, a level of sustained dominance rare in any track and field event. His first outdoor world record came at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene at 6.21 meters, and he has continued climbing since, reaching 6.31 meters at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala in March 2026.
Career Highlights
Duplantis has won nine senior global championship titles across the Olympics (2020, 2024), World Outdoor Championships (2022, 2023, 2025), World Indoor Championships (2022, 2024, 2025, 2026), and European Championships (2018, 2022, 2024). He has been named World Athletics’ Athlete of the Year four times and won the 2025 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, becoming only the second track and field athlete, after Usain Bolt, and the first field-event athlete ever to receive it.
He has cleared six meters or higher in competition more than 100 times — more than double the career total of previous great Sergey Bubka — and put together a winning streak of 40 consecutive events from August 2023 to June 2026. Beyond athletics, Duplantis has pursued a music career, releasing his debut single “Bop” in February 2025, which charted in Sweden, followed by additional singles including “4L,” “Feelin’ Myself,” and “Location.”
Personal Life
Duplantis married Swedish model Desiré Inglander in 2026, after the couple met in 2020 and became engaged in 2024. He splits his time between Louisiana in the winter months and Uppsala, Sweden, in the summer, and has worked to improve his fluency in Swedish, now comfortable giving interviews in the language.
Widely credited for bringing global attention to pole vault, a sport that had lacked a dominant, marketable star in the years since Bubka’s career ended, Duplantis has become one of track and field’s most recognizable ambassadors, named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People in Sports in 2026.
Net Worth & Legacy
Mondo Duplantis’s net worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, built through prize money, appearance fees, sponsorships, and a growing media profile that extends beyond athletics.
From a four-year-old vaulting in his family’s backyard to a two-time Olympic champion who has rewritten the pole vault world record 15 times over, Duplantis is widely considered the greatest pole vaulter in history, with The New York Times comparing his sustained dominance to that of Usain Bolt in sprinting, Michael Phelps in swimming, and Simone Biles in gymnastics.