Tokyo Olympics: What is Armand Duplantis' world record?

As a 21-year-old, Armand Duplantis has already broken two world records and is now heading into Tokyo Olympics 2020 as an outright favorite to win a gold medal in the pole vault event.

What are Armand Duplantis' world records?

The Swedish-American pole vault sensation holds world records in outdoor and indoor pole vault. Armand Duplantis first broke the world record in the indoor pole vault when he crossed 6.18m at the 2020 Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow.

Seven months later, he mounted an assault on the outdoor record. At the Rome Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League, Armand Duplantis crossed the 6.15m mark with ease and made the outdoor record in pole vault his own too.

The previous outdoor record of 6.15m held by Sergey Bubka was created nearly four and a half years before Armand Duplantis was born.

"I wanted to get over these 6.15 so badly. Everybody kept talking about it, it was a big chip on my shoulder ... When I did it, it was more relief than joy." Armand Duplantis said after achieveing the Outdoor record.

Who is Armand Duplantis?

Armand Duplantis is the son of Greg and Helena Duplantis. Sports was bound to be in Arman Duplantis' blood as his father Greg was a successful pole vaulter himself. His mother, Helena, was a heptathlete and volleyball player.

Armand Duplantis jumped into pole vaulting at the tender age of three. He represented Sweden at the World Youth Championships as a 10-year-old. In 2012, he participated in the World Junior Championships. By the age of 13, Armand already held seven age group world records.

It was then that the Duplantis family shifted their base to the USA.

As a freshman at Lafayette High School, Armand Duplantis created the indoor and the outdoor world records in pole vault. Since Duplantis held citizenship of both Sweden and the USA, Armand had the option of representing either country.

So in 2015, he announced that he would be representing Sweden on the international stage.

In 2015, Armand Duplantis won the gold medal at the World U18 Championships by crossing the 5.30m mark. A year later, he participated in the World U20 Championships and won a bronze medal with a jump of 5.45m.

In 2017, at the European U20 Championships, Armand Duplantis crossed the 5.65m mark to emerge first. Two more gold medals followed in 2018, at the World U20 Championships and the European Championships with jumps of 5.82m and 6.05m, respectively.

The 2019 World Athletic Championships in Doha was Armand Duplantis' first international event at senior level. Here, Armand Duplantis tied with the defending world champion Sam Kendricks at 5.97m, but had to settle for a silver medal as Sam Kendricks was in the lead.

Heading into 2020, Armand Duplantis capitalized on his form and broke the indoor and the outdoor world records.

In March this year, Armand Duplantis featured in the European Athletics Indoor Championships hosted by Poland. There, Armand Duplantis crossed the 6.05m mark and claimed yet another gold medal.

Armand Duplantis' possible chalengers at Tokyo 2020

World Athletics, in their series "100 ones to watch in Tokyo: Vertical Jumps", has laid special emphasis on the Brazilian pole vaulter, Thiago Braz.

Thiago Braz is the defending Olympic Champion and had won Brazil's only gold medal in athletics. In Rio, he crossed 6.03m to bag the gold medal. Three years later at the 2019 world championships, Thiago Braz crossed 5.92m to finish fifth.

Winning back-to-back gold medals will be very special, so believes Thiago Braz.

In his first Olympic appearance, Armand Duplantis will have to fight hard against an Olympic veteran.