April 20: 6m24 at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China. August 5: 6m25 at the Paris Olympic Games. August 25: 6m26 at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Silesia, Poland. September 13: 6m27 at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels? All we can do is wait and see.
“I would love to win the Wanda Diamond League final a fourth time”, Duplantis insists. “I'm imagining what it would be like to stand on the podium with that diamond trophy. It's an important and special event that means a lot to me.
“But I can't say if I'll jump a new world record on Friday. I feel good, I still have energy in the tank and I want to give it my all one more time. I will do my best and try and jump as high as I can tomorrow. I don't feel any pressure to jump another record. I just love pole vaulting and I love winning. Winning is easy, losing is much harder. That's the hard part of the sport.”
But losing is an aspect Duplantis hasn't had to worry about too much. The Swede wins anywhere he starts, becoming one of the superstars of track and field athletics. But since his Olympic gold in Paris, his worldwide popularity has scaled new heights much like Duplantis himself.
"There's definitely a time before and after Paris," Duplantis nodded. "It's day and night. I think it's all because of the internet and social media. My victory went viral and it reached a wider audience. I think it's cool, but at the same time it's sometimes difficult to realise. But I experience it as something positive."
Duplantis isn't just winning pole vaults these days, he is also basking in his win against hurdles specialist Karsten Warholm at a 100m duel last week in Zurich, defeating him with a time of 10:37 to the Norwegian's 10:47. Can we expect more stunts like that in the future? "I think it's a good thing for athletics to organise stuff like that once in a while. Do I have any other challenges in mind? I'm a pole vaulter and I'm good at it, so let's leave it at that for now," he said before turning to 400m hurdles runner Femke Bol alongside him at the press conference. "But who knows. Maybe one day I can race Femke in the 400 metres? There's just one problem, I never ran more than 150 metres..."
