Why pole vault icon has broken world record TWELVE times amid £1m pay day

Mondo Duplantis broke the men's pole vault world record for a 12th time at the Diamond League in Stockholm, with the 25-year-old achieving a clearance of 6.28m. Duplantis is a two-time Olympic champion and first broke the record back in February 2020.

He has since continued to raise the mark by small increments in order to maximise his bonus money, with athletes receiving a maximum $100,000 (£73,000) payout for setting a new world record.

As a result, it is more lucrative for Duplantis to keep increasing the record by small increments rather than raising it as high as possible. Duplantis is not the only pole vaulter to have employed this tactic, with Ukraine's Sergey Bubka and Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva doing the same.

Bubka broke the men's outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times, while Isinbayeva broke the women's world record 28 times. Duplantis, meanwhile, is estimated to have earned more than £1m from doing this.

Speaking ahead of the Diamond League event, Duplantis stated that breaking the record on home soil was his "biggest dream". He said: "I'm pretty excited. Of course, I would say it's like a mini championship for me.

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"It feels like that kind of pressure that I put on myself—it means that much. You really have to defend the ground. My biggest dream now—I feel like the only thing I'm missing—is to break the record here at Stockholm Stadium.

"It's kind of a thing I can't get off my mind. I have a lot of my family here—pretty much all of my family from both sides. So that raises the pressure quite a bit. In track and field, you don't really get that type of home field advantage that much.

"But here, I'm able to really feel that—and it comes with added pressure. But I think it's super nice too, because it feels like I'm representing something a little bit bigger than just me when I'm on the track."

Duplantis was born in America, but competes for Sweden through his mother Helena and he was delighted after breaking the record. "The first time I jumped in this stadium when I was 11 years old, it was rainy, cold and I jumped right under four metres," he explained.

"It was quite high for how young I was. They etch the names of world record holders here. It's going to be really special to have my name etched in the stadium.

"It's the most beautiful stadium, in my biased opinion. It'll be one of the greatest memories for me, I think, in my career."

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