13 world records, each with a big bonus — is Duplantis gaming system?

Times

4 days ago

To explain the calculated brilliance of Mondo Duplantis, it is worth pointing out that even Usain Bolt could not earn $100,000 a centimetre. The peerless pole vaulter broke the world record for the 13th time in Hungary on Tuesday and landed another nice bonus in the process of raising the bar. His dominance has been both incredible and incremental.
The Louisiana-born Swede, 25, cleared 6.29 metres at a second-tier World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Budapest. That was 1cm higher than the record he set in June in Sweden, which was one more than his 11th landmark from February in France. It had been almost a year to the day since he broke his own record in the Olympic final in Paris. Since taking the record from Renaud Lavillenie in 2020, Duplantis has increased the world record by a centimetre every time. Given that the record had previously been surpassed once in 26 years, this shows canny showmanship, as well as athletic and technical brilliance.
The reasons are money and marketing. Each time he breaks a record Duplantis gets widespread attention and cash bonuses. The latter vary, with the highest rewards coming in major competitions. World Athletics, the governing body, and its sponsors pay out $100,000 (about £74,000) for records at the World Championships and $50,000 at the indoor version.
The figure is not always that high and he will not get that much from the organisers of the Istvan Gyulai Memorial, where he set the record this week. Duplantis received $30,000 when he set his second world record in Glasgow in 2020 and World Athletics regulations now state that any Diamond League meeting must be able to pay out a minimum $50,000 per record. Add contract bonuses from his own sponsors such as Puma, though, and Duplantis will have comfortably cleared a million dollars from the business of record-breaking.
The double Olympic and five-times world champion (indoor and outdoor) explained his methodology earlier this year. 'A man's got to make a living,' he said, 'and there is a bit of a glitch, you could say. There's not so many people making an abundance of bread in track and field and so I guess it's a good thing I can capitalise.'
This approach makes him different to every other leader in the athletics sphere. Nobody else can break records almost for fun and leave more in the tank. Bolt ended his sprint career having broken the 100m world record three times and the 200m record twice. Duplantis has reasoned he can eventually get to 6.40m, which is a lot more derring-dough.
Of course, he could probably have got to 6.29m in half the number of records, but his small steps from giant leaps is the way of the great vaulters. Sergey Bubka, winner of one Olympic gold and ten world titles, set 35 world records in total, including 18 indoor. Yelena Isinbayeva, the Russian star of the women's scene, set a combined 27 records. She once gave an insight into why she only nudged the bar when she said: 'The people must remember I have to pay tax and then my manager and my coach. I do it because I want to beat Sergey Bubka who has 35 world records. I think it's possible for me, so I need to do it centimetre by centimetre. Also, if I jump five metres tomorrow, I won't have anything left. I don't want to be like [long jumper] Bob Beamon. He jumped 8.9m and was finished.'
Bubka, himself, conceded that he might have gone higher when in the zone rather than quitting a competition after another marginal gain. 'Potentially, sure,' he said. 'It could have been possible.'
Duplantis is clearly far from finished and is good for a struggling sport. He has the profile to attract a new generation, with two pop songs already released and his wedding proposal to an influencer-model, Desire Inglander, filmed for Vogue Scandinavia. He can also talk a good game as well as deliver one. Hence, his description of breaking the world record in the Olympic final. 'That's not pre-canned nonsense, that's just overflowing with emotions, freaking out,' he said. 'I've been fortunate to do it several times now and every time the feeling is the same, but this was a more extreme version. When I'm going over the bar it's like AI. It doesn't feel real.'
The son of an American pole vaulter and Swedish heptathlete, he received flak and 'traitor' accusations when he chose to compete for his mother's homeland. Dubbed the 'fat kid' at school, his rise has been heart-warming, and he clearly had a head for drama from infancy judging by the 911 call that followed his decision to climb a neighbour's tree while still in a nappy.
He also fits an event that has long been a forum for mavericks and eccentrics. AC Gilbert was an Olympic gold medallist who also worked as a magician and became known as 'The Man Who Saved Christmas' after convincing the US Council for National Defence not to ban toy sales during the First World War. And then there was Don Bragg who liked swinging on vines and whose overt pitch to play Tarzan in Hollywood included letting out a trademark yell on the Olympic podium after winning gold in 1960. His bad luck meant when he finally got to be the eponymous hero in Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, filming was curtailed by a copyright infringement.
For Duplantis, this year is heading upwards, towards next month's World Championships in Tokyo where he stands to win $70,000 for another gold medal — he has been unbeaten for two years — and, of course, a possible $100,000 bonus.