Do we like Armand Duplantis?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on both tests, but not much on record about causes or his wider views, so it's a solid seven rather than a gushing ten.
Armand Gustav Duplantis, known to everyone as Mondo, was born in the US and holds American and Swedish citizenship. He chose to compete for Sweden, his mother's country. Pole vaulting runs in the family, and CNN's profile has him raising the world record from 6.17m to 6.27m by early 2025.
Since then he's kept nudging it up, one centimetre at a time. In March 2026 he cleared 6.31m at his own Mondo Classic meet in Sweden. A week later he won a fourth straight world indoor title in Toruń, and he said he skipped the record attempt there because it had been a tough competition.
Scandals first. We went looking for lawsuits, court rulings, accusations and denials and found nothing about him. That's honestly the whole list, which is rarer than you'd think for someone this famous. Searching for allegations only turned up stories about other athletes.
The harm check is clean too. We found nothing from him on trans people, women, climate or migrants, and no work with people who push harm. Asked about Donald Trump and the political climate in 2025, he said he wasn't knowledgeable enough to give an expert opinion, and added “I hope it turns out well for Sweden.” You could call that dodging or call it honest. Either way, nothing harmful there.
The recent thing is Russia. When the IOC moved to readmit Russian athletes from 2028, he said “I don't understand it, quite honestly.” He added that the war is only getting worse. Whether that's a human stance or a sportsman's one depends on how you see sport and politics mixing, but it's his own call, and it's aimed at a war, not at people.
The good stuff is real but modest on the record. In 2020 he auctioned his signed Toruń bib to raise money for the fight against coronavirus. In 2025 he won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award after a second Olympic gold in Paris. He talks about wanting pole vaulting to “stand on its own two legs”, so he clearly wants to lift the whole sport.