High School Pole Vaulter Annihilates Pro Field, Breaks A Bunch Of Records

Patrick Redford|published: Tue 4th April, 20:03 2017

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Mondo Duplantis is not only the best-named high school athlete in the country, he’s also one of the best. Last weekend, Duplantis was competing in pole vault at the Texas Relays in the men’s elite division. Duplantis is a junior at Lafayette High School in Louisiana, yet he smoked a field that contained numerous top pros and broke the junior world in the process.

The 17-year-old cleared 19 feet, 4.25 inches (or 5.90 meters) this weekend, setting a meet record and raising the world junior record by a whopping 10 cm. To put that number in context, 5.90 would have won him a bronze medal at the Olympics, and it’s higher than the winning jump at every world championship since 2001. In fact, Duplantis won the event over Shawn Barber, the most recent world champion, as well another olympian. His 5.90-meter leap is the highest vault this year.

If you need a slowed-down angle, here you are.

Duplantis competes for Sweden internationally, so when he inevitably continues his takeover of pole vault at the Olympic level, it’ll be for the Swedes, not the USA. You can, however, still enjoy this hoverboard stunt.