Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis has broken the men’s pole vault world record for a 12th time.
Duplantis, born and raised in Louisiana with a Swedish mother, cleared 6.28 meters (20 feet, 7 inches) on his first attempt at a Diamond League meet in Stockholm.
He improved on his most recent world record of 6.27 meters set Feb. 28 at an indoor meet in France. Duplantis has increased the world record by one centimeter for all 12 of his records, the first on Feb. 8, 2020.
Duplantis, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, adopted the same record-breaking strategy as Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, who maximized bonus money by raising the bar one centimeter at a time on many occasions in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Bubka broke the outdoor world record 17 times and the indoor world record 18 times between 1984 and 1994, before World Athletics shifted to one world record combining indoor and outdoor.
Before Duplantis, the world record was 6.16 meters, set by Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.
Duplantis, 25, has lost just four times since the start of 2020, while racking up more than 70 victories, according to Tilastopaja.org.
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