"I would love to take a shot at 6.25"- Mondo Duplantis eyeing world record at Ostrava Golden Spike

Mondo Duplantis holds both the indoor (6.22m) and outdoor (6.24m) world records in the pole vault. At the upcoming 2024 Ostrava Golden Spike, scheduled on May 28, 2024, the two-time World outdoor champion wishes to touch the 6.25m mark and break his previous record set at the Xiamen Diamond League.

Mondo Duplantis, 24, has a multitude of laurels under his belt. The current European and Diamond League champion is the 2020 Tokyo Olympics pole vault gold medalist, who has etched his name as the most promising pole vault athlete representing his mother's nation, Sweden.

By February 2023, he had already touched the six-foot mark in pole vault 60 times, the greatest achievement of any pole vaulter in history. The same year, Mondo Duplantis started his season with a record 6.10m, his best season-opener performance and the highest in pole vault history.

Coming into 2024, the Swede bettered his world record mark to 6.24, breaking his record for the eighth time at the Xiamen Diamond League. In a post-event interview, Mondo Duplantis opened up about bringing the best out of himself, saying, "I'm going to try to maximize the most out of every day."

He further solidified his statement in an interview posted by Zlata Tetra Ostrava, ahead of the 59th Ostrava Golden Spike meeting. After attaining the 6.24m mark, Duplantis wished to notch it up to 6.25m at the Golden Spike when asked about his strategies for the event.

"If I secure the victory, I feel good and the conditions are good, I will try to jump as high as I possibly can. I would love to take a shot at 6.25. It is all about how I feel. I do not preplan the progression, I will just go with the flow."

"My first Olympics" - Mondo Duplantis on competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed to take place in 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Swede, like most athletes, competed in an empty arena, which wasn't worth the gold he achieved with no fans to laud his achievement. According to him, the pandemic situation was very stressful.

The 24-year-old talked to Reuters about the Paris Olympics and dubbed it as his first Summer Games, as it will witness crowd participation, just the way he would like it to be.

"It feels like it's going to be, in a way, my first Olympics. The situation with COVID just brought a lot of stress, on everybody, and you weren't really able to be as free as you would like to."

Mondo Duplantis is looking forward to the Paris Olympics as his family members will watch him in action from the sidelines.