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Time of India
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
'Not a big numbers guy': Armand Duplantis explains his pole vault mindset
Armand Duplantis of Sweden (Tamas Vasvari/MTI via AP) Mumbai: Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis is the man who keeps rewriting the numbers in pole vault. 'Numbers' is putting it very lightly. They're World Records, and he has set 13 of them. But ask him about the one number everyone wants to know, his ultimate limit, and he shrugs it off. 'I'm not a big numbers guy… I don't really care about limits,' he says. 'I know there's more to come, and I'm going to keep pushing it.' Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! It's not false modesty. It's the way the 25-year-old operates. Living in the present, chasing the perfect jump, not the statistic. 'I try to maximise and achieve the most that I can in the now,' he said during an interaction with world media on Thursday. 'I think about it a lot less than you would probably imagine.' Fresh from another world record, 6.29m in Budapest, Duplantis sounds as if he has already moved on. 'I feel really good,' he says. 'Of course, I'm showing that I'm in good shape and everything's going as I would like for it at this time of the season. Super happy about the jam in Budapest. It was a super amazing night for me.' There's no long bask in the glory. 'I just have this real internal drive and motivation that I just want to keep being better,' he says. That drive comes with what he calls 'short-term memory loss' about his achievements. 'I probably don't soak in and forget my accomplishments too quickly. It takes a few days and then I just forget what I did and then I just start looking towards the next thing,' he says. 'I always figure out a way to make new goals and look forward. And it becomes probably even quicker and quicker now too.' Poll What do you think is more beneficial for a pole vaulter: technique or mental preparation? Technique Mental preparation Both equally This constant reset is, in his mind, simply 'the way that I'm built… I just always look forward in that kind of way.' Tokyo dreams Breaking a world record doesn't come with instant calm. 'It's always a bit difficult to find that deep sleep cycle after a world record because of the excitement and what not,' he admits. 'But no, I feel really good… just trying to keep pushing forward.' That push is now aimed at Tokyo, the city where he won his first Olympic gold in 2021, in front of empty stands. 'I'm super excited to go back to the stadium that I won my first Olympic gold… this time with fans,' he says, talking about the World Championships in Tokyo next month. 'I haven't been this excited about a competition, maybe ever.' The memory of that silent victory still lingers. 'It was a little bit more like a spooky and eerie type of feeling when I was in there because of all the circumstances,' he recalls. The difference, he believes, could be telling. 'I'd like to say that the spectators probably would have given me that little push to get over it,' he says of his near miss at 6.19m during those Games. Not a 'lab rat' Pole vault has been his life since childhood, guided by his parents, but Duplantis is quick to dismiss one persistent myth. 'It's a very common misconception that I was like this lab rat and I was forced to evolve from a very young age,' he says. 'I have other brothers and other siblings… my other brother was a baseball player and he liked baseball a lot more than pole vaulting. And there was no problem with that. My parents let us create our own path. ' It's why his advice to young athletes is about trying different sports and choosing what they enjoy most. 'You have to let kids be kids at the end of the day,' he says. Calm on the runway For an event that requires sprinting down a runway before vaulting over six metres, Duplantis stays strikingly calm. 'I get nervous in, like, an exciting way,' he explains. 'I don't get scared. If you're scared and you have any type of negative thoughts… that's usually a recipe for failure.' It's a mental strength he prizes as much as his technique. 'Zen is something that suits me very well and something that I can separate myself from most athletes and most jumpers,' he says. Fuel from rivals This year, Greek vaulter Emmanuel Karalis has emerged as a serious challenger. 'It's great to see… it pushes me,' Duplantis says. 'Coming off his last few meets… it gave me a lot of energy and motivation.' Still, he knows reputation alone doesn't win competitions. 'They don't just give me the trophy because I'm the favourite… I still have to go out there and I have to compete and I have to be on my A game and I have to earn my title as the one that's going to be the best and last man standing on that day every time,' he says. 'Everything's earned.' No magic number In an era where some athletics records stand for decades, Duplantis' constant progression is rare. But he insists there is no magic number taped to his bedroom wall. 'I'm not an OCD person… I like to let things just kind of happen naturally,' he says. 'I know that there's a lot more and that I'm going to keep jumping higher… but I don't really care about numbers in that way.' Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
The Citizen
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
24 hours in pictures, 12 August 2025
24 hours in pictures, 12 August 2025 Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world. An elephant at the Hanoi Zoo in Hanoi, Vietnam, 12 August 2025. World Elephant Day is observed annually on 12 August. Picture: EPA/LUONG THAI LINH Fans enjoy the concert of the Swedish punk band Refused at the 31st Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island, Budapest, Hungary, 11 August 2025 (issued 12 August 2025). Picture: EPA/Tamas Vasvari A resident stands with his belongings after members of an eviction company assisted the sheriff to evict them from an apartment building in Ekurhuleni on August 12, 2025. A squad of men working with the sheriff moved and cleared the houses, hauling out furniture, mattresses, and personal belongings. Police said they were acting on a June court order to evict people from the complex, which was reportedly home to 450 families, and that some residents had blocked roads to the area to prevent the eviction. Some residents interviewed told local television they had not been issued with an eviction order and had been paying rent, some of them for years. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP) South Africa batsman Dewald Brevis celebrates scoring his century during the second Twenty20 international cricket match between Australia and South Africa in Darwin on August 12, 2025. (Photo by William WEST / AFP) Traditional Russian wooden Matryoshka dolls depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and US President Donald Trump (R) on display for sale at a souvenir market in Moscow, Russia, 11 August 2025. Picture: EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV Moroccan horsemen ride during a performance to celebrate the annual Moussem festival in El Jadida on August 11, 2025. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP) Members of the Rahjanstani Hindu Troupe perform during the 59th edition of the International Festival of Carthage at the Roman Theater of Carthage in Tunis, Tunisia, 11 August 2025. The festival runs from 19 July to 21 August 2025. Picture: EPA/MOHAMED MESSARA People swim at the Bras Marie safe bathing site on the river Seine in Paris on August 12, 2025. France continues to suffocate with 14 departments in the southwest and southeast on red alert for heatwave on August 12, 2025, an exceptional heat wave, even for the month of August, which is prompting authorities to increase precautionary measures. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) Migrants try to board a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP) Eldorado residents gather outside Eldorado Park Police Station to voice their anger against the alleged assault of a four-year-old daughter at her home in Johannesburg, 12 August 2025. The suspect who is the chlid's father will appear for a bail hearing application at Protea Magistrates court. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation Andrew Oberholzer, 2nd from left, Hollard Group Chief Marketing Officer Hazel Chimhandamba, centre, and National Manager at CANSA Lorraine Govender, pose with a cheque for R1m, alongside Tebatso Rakoma, left, and Kgahliso Moreroa, right, 12 August 2025, during the handover of funds raised at last year's Hollard Daredevil Speedo Run. This annual awareness campaign, and fundraiser, invites men to run 5km wearing nothing but a purple Speedo – sparking conversations, challenging stigmas and encouraging early detection through testing. This year's run will take place on 31 October. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen A worker cleans a statue of Buddha inside the newly built Techo International Airport in Kandal province on August 11, 2025. (Photo by TANG CHHIN Sothy / AFP) Cyclist Manuel Turone of Argentina competes in the men's BMX freestyle category during the II ASU 2025 Junior Pan American Games in Luque, Paraguay, 11 August 2025. Picture: EPA/Juan Pablo Pino PICTURES: Strongman challenge at Randridge Mall
