Tokyo 2020: Duplantis soars, makes the Tokyo night his own

When American pole vaulter Christopher Nilsen came for the media interaction after winning a silver in a brief duel with Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, a Swedish reporter asked him straight: “I am from Sweden and I am going to ask about Mondo.”

Nilsen was game. “Sure, go ahead. I am also here to answer about Mondo.”

That’s the kind of impact Duplantis has made on pole vault. On a humid night at the Olympic Stadium when Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk won a third straight hammer throw Olympic gold and Elaine Thompson- Herah blitzed the 200m track in the last event of the evening session, Duplantis was still not finished, competing all by himself after the rest of the field in pole vault had packed up. He was raising the bar one attempt after another.

In fact, it was Nilsen who went and cleared 5.97m first. Duplantis followed, soaring over the bar and making it look all so easy and effortless. Next up was the 6.02m. Nielsen was done, but Duplantis’s romance with the night wasn’t over. He cleared 6.02 smoothly and then attempted to break his own world record of 6.18m. Hand almost did it, only for his chest to graze the bar and bring it down. He was all smiles, laughing, cheering himself up.

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Did Duplantis help Nilsen to aim higher, get his personal best?

“I don’t really know if he felt anything when I cleared 5.97 in the first attempt but in a normal competition here that is a very hard thing to do. But Mondo is Mondo as we all know. We like to say about professional athletes when you are on, you are on, when you are not, you are not. But Mondo is always on. It is very hard to beat him,” said Nilsen.

The media, still waiting for Duplantis to emerge, was happy to hear what Nilsen had to offer on the superstar.

So, what was it like to compete against him?

“It’s fun. It is kind of how we hang out with friends. Like most people go to a bar, or and play video games, we compete at the Olympics,” he laughed.

And what was going through Nilsen’s mind when Duplantis was attempting the world record?

“How could he, he must be stupid, I thought,” Nilsen said. “How cool it is to watch a world record holder and he almost got it. When I cleared 5.80 I was like wow I have cleared 5.80m at the Olympics. And now to watch him attempt 47cm higher, it was like a normal soccer player watching Messi or Ronaldo.”