AIPS Champion Armand Mondo Duplantis on breaking records making music and his dream of becoming a great father

Three days after being named the AIPS Champion of 2025 in the best male athlete category, Armand “Mondo” Duplantis spoke with more than 80 journalists in an online meeting organised by AIPS on Friday, 2 January 2026.

The 26-year-old Swedish pole vault star, who set four world records in 2025 en route to his third consecutive indoor and outdoor world titles and fifth successive Diamond League title, was the runaway winner in the Best Male Athlete of the Year category with 1182 points, as voted by a record 836 journalists from 121 countries.

During the one-hour session on Friday, Duplantis spoke about his motivation and plans for the 2026 season, his love for music, his dedication to family, his upcoming marriage and his dream of becoming a great father.

AIPS President Gianni Merlo opened the session with the first set of questions before opening the floor. The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

For the last record that you set in Tokyo, you didn’t look so sure at that moment that you would make 6.30m, but you did. What exactly happened?

Well, it was a very long and tiring competition, I would say. And, you know, usually these competitions for us take over three hours. And last year it was especially difficult because I had Emmanouil Karalis, the Greek jumper. He was jumping so well and he was pushing higher and higher. He jumped all the way up until 6.20m, which is very unusual. It's never happened to me. I've never had anybody that has pushed me that hard and jumped that long with me. So it was a few more jumps at higher bars than I've ever really had to take before attempting a world record. And so I think I had to dig deep. I had to really find this extra type of gear inside of myself because I was getting a little bit tired towards the end. I think on the last attempt, I really dug deep and got everything that I could out of myself.

For the second year in a row, you are not only a champion of athletics, but also a champion of world sport, what does this mean for you?

It's unbelievable, honestly. I'm really appreciative. So thanks to everybody that's on this call and everybody that voted for me, showing me love and support. I'm just really appreciative. I always try my best to be the best version of myself that I possibly can be. Ever since I was just a little kid, three years old, jumping in my parents' backyard, just my father and I going out there and jumping, I had these huge dreams that I could be the best in the world someday and I could just push the barriers of what's possible in our sport. I never thought any of this would come and I never thought I could win crazy titles and crazy awards like this. But I'm very appreciative of it. Just thankful, honestly.

Now that you have reached 6.30m. What is next? 6.40m?

Yeah, it's coming, I think. It would probably take a few steps to get to 6.40m. But I think that I'm definitely on my way. I feel like I've shown myself that the 6.40 bar is very possible. It's not something that is just going to happen automatically, magically. Probably not even this year. But it's something that I have within my capabilities for my career. We'll see. I'm just going to try to keep pushing it one at a time and see where I can get. I don't think so extremely far into the future, I think one season at a time. So right now I have the indoor season coming up, starting at the end of February. I'm just going to have a short and sweet three-meet indoor season. And for me, that's the only thing that I'm worried about and focused on. And I just go from there.

So far, you have used a pole of 5.20m. Do you think that to jump 6.40m, you have to use a pole of 5.25 or so to have a higher grip or is your current pole sufficient?

Maybe. Maybe, I'm probably going to need a few centimetres higher grip and a little bit of a stiffer pole. But that's going to require a few things from my side, such as more speed, more efficient energy transfer from the takeoff run to the takeoff and just, I guess, little things like that. The most important thing is just trying to put as much energy as I possibly can into the poles and into the takeoff. That's going to allow me to grip a little bit higher or to use a little bit stiffer poles. And in turn, those will throw me up in the air higher.

You have won two Olympic gold medals, and there are two other Olympics that you can reach. What do you think about becoming the first pole vaulter to win four Olympic titles in a row?

That would be amazing and I definitely think that it's possible. I feel like I need to take it one at a time though. I think that's natural and that's a better way to approach things. Of course, I would love to win four Olympics, five Olympics. I'd love to win as many as I possibly can as long as I'm still jumping at a very high level and I still enjoy it. But now I guess the one that's more in front of us is, of course, LA. And so that one, I definitely feel like I should be well prepared for and ready to make sure I do it. 

If you had to choose the best athlete of 2025, apart from yourself, who would you choose? 

(Carlos) Alcaraz, maybe. Either him or Jannik Sinner. I was watching a little bit of tennis this year (2025). I haven't watched that much tennis historically, but last year I just watched it more. So I really enjoyed watching two of them just battle it out all day, every day. That was one of my favourite things of the year, too. Alcaraz would have my vote. He's an awesome guy and an amazing tennis player. I love watching him go up.

Belize Godinho from Portugal: What is your definition of perfect jump and how close do you feel you have come to that ideal? 

Your sport demands constant evolution, are there any technical or equipment aspects that your team is exploring to unlock those new techniques? 

I'm really not much of a perfectionist, honestly. I'm very much of a competitor, of course. And I love to push myself and get the most out of myself. Ever since I was a little kid, I've always been quite hard on myself. I just knew the level that I can be at and so when I'm jumping, I just expect that out of myself. I just push myself very hard. But I'm really not a perfectionist at all. I'm realistic and I know that perfect is not really a plausible thing when it comes to pole vaulting and probably any sport for that matter, because there's always something, I guess, that can be better. And that's what is fun about it.

Regarding the equipment, I would say the equipment that we jump on and everything like that has been quite at a standstill for a while. The poles haven't really changed in modern times. I mean, for the past 40 years almost, it's like the same material. They mess around with some carbon fibre poles that I personally do not use, but I use the same brand, same material poles that Sergey Bubka was using back in the 90s. I have had discussions about at least trying to make it as efficient as possible. 

Rodrigo Tovar from Mexico:In a country like mine, pole vault is not very popular. But you are like a role model now for the new generation of athletes. Tell me your opinion about being a role model in Latin America? And also, with a lot of achievements in your career, I'd like to know what’s next - talking about sports and life?

Unfortunately, I really haven't spent much time in Latin America. I really wish I would and I could and I wish the opportunities were there for me to do it. I would absolutely love to jump in Mexico and anywhere in Latin America. I think that would be so amazing for me. When it comes to being a role model, of course, you have a little bit of weight on your shoulders as far as the way you present yourself and how you are as a person. And I try to do a good job of promoting my sport. And as long as I'm putting pole vaulting in the spotlight and promoting and inspiring just anybody to try out our sport, then I think I'm doing my job right.

For the future, I'm very optimistic. I also just try to really focus on what I have right now and to enjoy being an athlete as much as I can and try to maximise and do the most that I can while I am still young and physically fast and strong before my body starts to give up on me a little bit. So I just try to enjoy it as much as I can for now. And, you know, I'm going to get married this year, which is a big change in my life in general. So I'm taking that next step. And then, of course, hopefully down the road, have kids. I think more about those types of things personally, rather than anything that I would do beyond the track. That's more of where my head and my priorities are at, if I'm being honest.

Bart Fieremans from Belgium: I wanted to know a bit about the conflict of interest between the sponsors you have like Puma and Adidas for the Swedish Federation, because in Belgium, it was really a big issue with our Olympic champion, Nafi Thiam. How do you deal with that in your case?

I'm not exactly aware of what the dispute or discussion was about in Nafi's situation. I think I'm in the same position as most athletes, especially track and field athletes. The National Federations have their own kits and the athletes have their own sponsorships. And when we go to the championship competitions, we're required to wear our country's uniforms. So it's never anything really, that's been too much of a problem from my side of things, I would say. I don't really know her situation so much, but from my side, it's just one of these things. It is what it is.

Thibault Le Besne from France: I wanted to ask you about how you keep your lifestyle balanced? 

It's a difficult thing - finding that right balance in life. The main thing that I'm trying to do personally right now is just to be a little bit more organised and plan out things in advance a little bit better, which I guess is very difficult for me, because a lot of the times as an athlete it's pretty easy to fall into being very selfish about what your needs are, and what you have to do in your own schedule, and whatnot, but I still want to be a good partner, a good brother and good son to my family. And I want to have good relationships with all my friends as well. So I try to make sure I keep those relationships intact, because I think that really helps you on the track. So that's pretty much where all of my time goes. When I have free time, it's just hanging out with my family and my closest friends, because a lot of the time during the year, I just travel a lot and do a lot of competitions. 

Rodrigo Goyeneche from Mexico:How do you handle all the pressure and prepare your mind to create great moments and break world records? 

It's something that you just get used to. And I think the better preparation I have going into these big competitions, the less I feel the pressure and the less I feel the nerves. I was super nervous and super anxious and put a lot of pressure on myself before the first world championships that I ever competed at. And of course, I still feel very excited and I still feel butterflies and nerves even now going into these big competitions. But it's nowhere near the way it used to be. And I think that's just a result of me having a lot more confidence now. So it's just a confidence thing and having a good mindset of controlling everything that I can control and letting the uncontrollable things just be.

Wojciech Nowakowski from Poland: Usually you break your records in the big stadiums and most of them are now using the Mondo track. So I would like to ask you, do you know other surfaces and do you feel the differences between them?

Different surfaces will give you different things for sure. But whether it's Mondo or any of the other surface brands, it makes a big difference how long it's been there. A fresh Mondo surface compared to one that's been laying there for six years, they're very different in feeling, they're very different in stiffness and the kind of response feeling that you get on the runway. Same with any of the other brands. A lot of it is just feeling how hard it is or how soft it is and feeling the way that your spikes respond to it, basically. So, it's something that I definitely take into consideration and something that you have to adjust to in real time.

Serjio Du Four from Trinidad and Tobago: You defeated Karsten Warholm in a 100m race, do you intend to give him a rematch? Or do you intend to compete with any other sprinter in the 100m?

The second question: Do you think pole vaulters are born or created?

I don't really have such plans, but I love sprinting. I love doing sprint training. I love running. One of my favourite things as a child was that feeling and that bundle of energy that you have right before the gun goes off or somebody says go. It's one of my favourite feelings in the whole world. Honestly, there's nothing that compares to it. So I would love to do another race, whether it's against Karsten or anybody. We'll see. But I have no plans for it as of now. 

I think that as an athlete, there's probably some combination of gifts that you're born with and the ones that have to be developed - skill sets that have to be created over time. But a lot of it is the environment that you grow up in, I would imagine. And I would say so, especially speaking from my own experience. I grew up in basically just an environment where it was very easily accessible to me. And that doesn't necessarily mean that everybody in my situation will be jumping in the way and capacity that I do, I mean, my brothers didn’t enjoy it or have the same passion for it as I did, but I just fell in love with it and the stars aligned, I guess, in my way. And I just really was determined and focused and really driven to be the best that I could be and be the best that there is. So I think it's a combination of probably everything. But I think mentality and having belief is one of, if not the most important thing.

Olaf Brockmann from Austria: The world indoors will be taking place in Toruń. You have great memories there - your first world record. Then we have the European Champonships - the first time you reached six metres was in Berlin, at the Europeans. Then coming up to Budapest (for the Ultimate Championship) - you set a world record there last year. Can you comment on these three topics for this year?

I'm really excited going into next season. It's a really great schedule of meets for me in places where I've proven to be able to jump at a very high level and jump really high. So I'm excited for the world indoors in Toruń, to be back to the place where I broke my first world record. Budapest, of course, is an amazing stadium that I've already proven that I can break a world record there. And also just excited to experience the new and fresh concept that is the Ultimate Championship. So, same kind of mentality and mindset going into this year as I had last year. Hopefully I can be much more efficient. 

David Istrate from Romania: Before this Q&A I was watching your videos from when you were a kid beating records. And I was thinking that pole vaulting in itself is a repetitive act. So how do you find the motivation, the passion to do it again and again and not to get bored? 

Well, it's repetitive, but it's nearly impossible for one jump to feel the same as the next one. Because it's also very physical. It's not just like putting or anything, where you're actually trying to make it as identical as possible. I feel like I'm always trying to get a little bit more out of one jump and trying to get a little bit more energy in the next jump and trying to make it a little bit better. Of course, you want to have some sort of consistency and rhythm and similar timing within your jumps, but I feel like I'm always trying to improve upon that. So I think the motivation just remains from the chase of it all. There's always a better jump that you can be doing or a little bit more speed or more energy that you can be creating. So I just feel like the journey and the chase and just always trying to maximise myself and the best jump, I think that's what keeps me going forward.

Eranayo Dorcas Koki from Nigeria: World records used to feel like the very untouchable moments in sports and you're breaking them with a kind of regularity that was never seen, especially in a sport like pole vault. So do you worry that the event is becoming predictable around you? Or do you think that the real challenge now is convincing people and sport lovers, pole vault lovers, that what you are doing still counts as extraordinary?

It's a really good question, honestly, but I don't really think it's necessarily up to me to worry about convincing people of what I do or the significance of it. I think most people understand how hard it is to break a record and to compete at that level. The way that's perceived? So be it. For me, I just try to push it as high as I possibly can and keep trying to better myself and break as many world records as possible. I think that hopefully it's a positive thing that can bring our sport into the spotlight or inspire some people to be a better version of themselves, especially pole vaulters. I really love this sport and I've been obsessed with it since I was a child so if I can put pole vaulting in the forefront and a little bit in the spotlight, then for me, that's the most important thing, I would say, besides the personal things for me. I just want to compete at the level that I know I can compete and I just want to jump really high. So, the way that's perceived or whatever it may be, it's a little bit out of my control. 

Doriano Robotti from Italy: Since Italy gifted you with your worldly name, I wanted to know something more about your relation with Italy. 

I could give you a little bit of a short back story. My father’s best friend - the best man at my father's wedding - was Sicilian. My father grew up in the United States, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the specific area where he grew up in Westwego had a large Italian community there, basically of immigrants. And so a lot of his friends and most of his best friends were either Italians or part Italians to some extent. So I basically just got the name “Mondo” from my dad's best friend. I don't really know if it's a play on my actual government name “Armand”... But that's how I got the name, from my dad's best friend.

Zsuzsa Csisztu, AIPS Vice President, from Hungary: I watched you at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and recently, in 2025 when you cleared a world record of 6.29m at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial. First of all, what kind of memories do you have of the Hungarian audience? What are your expectations for the Ultimate Championship this year and what memories do you have of Budapest?

I have fantastic memories of Budapest, obviously, also on a life experience level, not just because I jumped there. Well, of course, that always makes the memory of an experience of a city a lot better when I jump higher, jump a world record. But I really, really enjoy Budapest as a city. It's one of my favourite cities to compete in and to experience in general, so I'm really excited to go back. And it's a combination of things that I like. I really like the city. I really enjoy it. I like the food there. And then also it has great weather. It's good and warm. And then I know that it's a place where I can jump really high and it's a place where I can break the world record. And it's a place that has a very energetic and passionate crowd that will give me a lot of push. So it's really just a combination of everything that I want, I would say, for a competition. That is definitely what pushed me and led me into also being an ambassador of the Ultimate Championship.

May Zhao from the UK: As such a successful role model, would you please share some of your excellent experience and the unique advice to the young generation? 

I would say the most important thing is to follow your passion. Follow what you love and follow whatever thing that it is that you want to be good at, I think is the most important thing, because that's what you'll be most motivated in. Just listen to yourself and listen to your heart on what it is and where it's pushing you to. Follow that burning fire in you, whatever it may be, because you can't force it. There's going to be hard days and there's going to be days where you don't necessarily want to do what you're doing. But as long as you really have that passion and fire for it and you have that real burning desire to be good at it, then you'll end up pretty good.

Your life dream in one sentence?

To be a great father. I would say that would be the dream and what success would mean to me.

Ezinne Oti from Nigeria: You have broken the world record 14 times and the prize money for competitions is also increasing. Is it now just about making this money or there's still that extra hunger to break the record and to just keep winning every competition you participate in?

You don't think about anything else when you're on the track other than just trying to be the best that you can be and compete hard. Of course, there is some level of importance on being able to have a good set of income that comes in just to be able to do all the things that you want to be able to do in life, but I wouldn't say it's totally necessary. It's for sure something that you want, you think about, and you try to maximise it as best as you can. Well, not letting it take over your life and be overbearing. So I try to find a little bit of a balance. When you're on the track and it's go time, that's just competition. That fierce competition, man versus man, is really the only thing that matters.

Michal Dusik from Czechia:Everyone is just asking questions about athletics, but what about your music career?

I have some songs coming this year, 2026. I plan to release something in January, probably something also in February. Hopefully maybe even something in April. We'll see. I actually really have tons and tons of songs. And it's something that I really enjoy, and I'm getting a lot better and better at it. I'm getting to a point where I'm really liking the way everything sounds. And I just fell in love with the process of creating. 2026 will be very fun and interesting because, I mean, you really have no idea what is going to happen. And I have no idea what's going to happen with the music thing. But I have a lot of songs and I'm going to release them and whatever happens, happens, I guess. It's a very much different process than being an athlete, which I think is really nice because it gives me a healthy balance of things because you don't shoot for clear goals in the same way that you do as an athlete. I like it, I really enjoy it. And, of course, I hope people resonate with it.

Tibor Hortobagyi from Hungary: What are the most important three fun facts about you?

I would say that the most important things in my life are probably just my friends and family, my fiancée. And then probably the only other thing that I do outside of the track right now is the music thing. All of those things, I think, give me such a really great balance. I like to try to be a great partner and soon-to-be husband. And I like keeping the fire and spark in our relationship. Other than that, I have a really close knit friends. You know how it is when you hang out with your childhood friends, it's like nothing else matters in the whole world. And then, of course, I'm very close with my family. I spend a lot of time with them, whether it's in the United States or even in Sweden. 

Harez Jamal from Iran: What are your plans for the World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland this year?

My plan is to be there. I will be participating in it. And I hope to just be in really good shape and be able to jump something really high. I love Torun. It’s a place where I've jumped really high before. I broke my first world record there of 6.17. So I have a lot of great memories from that stadium and from that city.

Martin Mazur from Argentina: I want to take you back to Tokyo. And there are many beautiful and powerful images of your record there. I'm sure you've seen them all… If you have to choose one photo of all these special moments to frame in your living room, what would you choose and why?

I would say the photo of me and my fiancée. Probably me, my father and my mother embracing. The picture with the guys, Karalis, Kurtis and Sam would probably be a close second to those two, because I think that at the end of the day, people are the most important and the people that you surround yourself with and the people that you love and that you develop and build relationships with, that's what life is mostly about, I would say. I wouldn't be in the situation that I am in without my father and my mother or even my fiancée, and so I think that, you know, those moments and snapshots of us together celebrating those big wins and big jumps like that, that's very much a sentiment to everything that we've accomplished and how far we've been able to come just by being together and pushing each other to be the best version of ourselves.

David Baumgartner from Austria:I read that you didn't have a jump which felt perfect to you, which seems quite hard to believe. What would feel perfect to you then?

It's very true. I've had a lot of fantastic jumps over the years, which I'm very thankful for, but I think there's always something in the jump that I feel like could have been a little bit improved upon. Nothing's ever going to be totally perfect, you just have to adjust to whatever the jump gives you.

Ioannis Giagkinis from Greece: I would like to ask you for a few words about this relationship you have built with Emmanouil "Manolo" Karalis from the juniors till now. And finally, what does he have to do in order to win you?

We've been jumping together since we were young, since we were just teenagers, so we developed a relationship already then. Of course, the past year he really exploded. I think he showed his full potential and what he's capable of doing. So he pushed me very hard last year (2025). And for sure, considering the level that he was jumping at last year, the path and the progression that he is on, he's going to be giving me a lot of good pushes and good competitions in the years to come, which is going to just make it more and more difficult for me. And I know that as long as he's jumping well, I have to be on my A game and really jump well. 

Onyinyechi Obaroh from Nigeria:A lot of talent is coming up from Africa, do you see the responsibility on your end as a world record holder to invest in developing nations, especially in Africa?

I think that it would be very beneficial and very important if I was able to have a competition somewhere in Africa. And I would really enjoy doing that, honestly, because I think that more events are necessary there. I think that sports are so important to communities and cultures and society. And I think that sports really brings people together and it really gives kids and young kids great paths and things to focus on. I think that as a kid, without sports, it's very easy to get caught up in the wrong things. I would actually love to compete in Africa.

Andres Rocha from Colombia: Do you think you are competing more against yourself than against the other rivals?

Here's the thing, of course, I'm competing against myself, but I'm not saying it in the sense that I have no competition, because I have a lot of great competitors. But I think that is just the nature of the sport that I'm doing. Even when I was younger, let's take 2017, 2018, 2019, for example, where I wasn't winning every competition, I was probably not winning most of them. It's still a competition against yourself. The real competition is just you against the bar and you against the height and you against whatever you're trying to achieve. The nature of an individual sport is that the competition is within yourself. So I would say yes, the competition is against myself. But it's not just because I'm at the top right now. It's because that's just how it is.