Sweden’s Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis retained his Olympic pole vault title by breaking his own world record – and then celebrated wildly with his girlfriend and teammates.
Duplantis saw off silver medalist Sam Kendricks of the USA and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis – who took bronze – before clearing 6.10m at the first attempt.
That saw the 24-year-old beat Thiago Braz’s Olympic record of 6.03m from Rio 2016 before he took on his own world record of 6.24m – set in April.
With every other event having finished for the night and 69,000 fans creating a deafening atmosphere in Paris, he cleared 6.25m at the third and final attempt.
The Louisiana-born Swedish-American immediately rose from the mat and sprinted towards the stands. He leapt into the air and then embraced his girlfriend, model Desire Inglander.
Sweden’s Armand Duplantis embraces his girlfriend Desire Inglander after winning gold
The pole vault champion then celebrated wildly with one of his Sweden teammates in Paris
The pair kissed as fans celebrated around them before Duplantis was mobbed by his Sweden teammates.
The 24-year-old was so fired up while hugging one of his countrymen that the pair began shoving and even punching each other in the chest.
Duplantis also celebrated his win by mimicking Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec, whose nonchalant style has made him an internet sensation.
The pole vault star has now added a second Olympic crown to his long list of achievements, which already included two world championship golds and three European titles.
‘I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,’ he said afterwards. ‘It´s one of those things that doesn’t really feel real, such an out of body experience.
He added: ‘The biggest dream since I was 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.
‘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. The party is going to be pretty big.’
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