Mondo Duplantis’ Olympic Rival Ramps Up Paris 2024 Preps With USATF World Indoor Gold

The 2024 USATF Indoor Championship just witnessed a stellar victory of America’s answer to Sweden’s pole vaulting genius Mondo Duplantis. The Tokyo Olympic Games silver medalist clinched a gold at the national championship after a long-drawn battle against compatriot Sam Kendricks.

The two Nike athletes constantly gave each other tough competition, but Chris Nilsen eventually emerged victorious. The Olympian successfully executed a six-meter pole vault to bring the USATF Indoor Championship event to a fitting conclusion. 

Interestingly, this was a new facility record for Albuquerque as well as a new meet record for the USATF Indoor Championship. Sam Kendricks was matching every move of Nilsen, but a six-meter pole vault proved too much for him today. Thus, his highest vault remained his 5.95m attempt. 

While a six-meter execution did the trick today, the Nike athlete has already registered a higher pole vault this season. Chris Nilsen is currently the world lead in the 2024 season and achieved this position on 26 January. The USATF Indoor Championship victor registered a vault of 6.01 meters at the USD Alumni Meet at Dakota Dome to clinch the spot.

The 26-year-old will now look forward to building on his gold medal win to boost himself for the upcoming Paris Olympics. However, while Chris Nilsen has won the USATF Indoor Championship, it will take him a lot to surpass Armand Mondo Duplantis. After all, the Swede has reached a league of his own and only competes with himself now.

USATF Indoor Championship gold to repeat in Paris?

Chris Nilsen is an NCAA stalwart just like Mondo Duplantis. The USATF Indoor Championship winner is a three-time NCAA champ with South Dakota. Despite this, however, Duplantis holds the NCAA record for the highest pole vault at six meters, which he achieved as a 19-year-old in 2019.

So far, Chris Nilsen just has a 0.1m advantage over Duplantis’ NCAA record. The 26-year-old will have to go full-throttle if he wishes to take the Swedish LSU star down, especially since he has smashed his own world record seven times. Nilsen’s USATF Indoor Championship effort is currently 0.23 meters behind Mondo’s 6.23m pole vault in 2023’s Prefontaine Classic.

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Armand Mondo Duplantis will look forward to breaking this world record once again, especially at the Paris Olympics. The countdown to the Olympics still has 160 days left. Will Chris Nilsen be able to get on the level of the Swede by that time? Or will Duplantis successfully defend his Tokyo crown and achieve another new world record?

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