Mondo Duplantis has broken the world record three times in 2025.
Sweden's Mondo Duplantis has broken the men's pole vault world record for a 13th time.
Duplantis, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, cleared 6.29 meters (20 feet 7 1/2 inches) at a meet in Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday.
For all of Duplantis' 13 world records, including three times in 2025, he has chosen to increase the record by the minimum one centimeter.
It's the same record-breaking strategy used by 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.
Duplantis, born and raised in Louisiana with a Swedish mom, broke Lavillenie's record in February 2020.
He has lost just four times since the start of 2020, while racking up more than 80 victories, according to Tilastopaja.org.
Next month, Duplantis will bid to become the second man to win three world outdoor pole vault titles in a row after Bubka, who won the first six crowns from 1983 through 1997.
Category: General Sports
