Opinion | January 12, 2026
Not all superstars are made equal. There are Olympic gold medalists, world record holders, and then there are generational talents that transcend their sport and push human performance beyond what we thought was possible.
Jordan, Serena, Bolt, Phelps, Venus, Flo Jo, Brady. These are just some of the athletes that Mondo Duplantis has joined in this upper echelon.
Mondo Duplantis Rise to Stardom
We’re coming up on the sixth anniversary of Mondo Duplantis’ first world record, when he jumped 6.17 meters at the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Toruń. Since then, he has gone on to break his own record 13 more times as well as win two Olympic gold medals, three World Championships, and five consecutive Diamond League Finals.
We’ve become so accustomed to watching him win everything that it’s easy to forget that what we’re witnessing isn’t normal. It’s a slice of history that we shouldn’t take for granted.
For many athletes, making it to the Olympics or World Championships represents the culmination of a lifetime of hard work. Simply competing at these international games is enough for most athletes to retire content knowing that they’ve made it to the top level of their sport, a feat that few will ever accomplish.
Duplantis checked off this box as an 18-year-old, and now seems to be on track to become one of the most winning athletes in the history of the sport.
“I want to win everything there is to win, and do it more times than anyone else has done it,” Duplantis said in a 2021 interview with Reuters. And he seems to be on track to do just that.
The Legacy of Mondo
It’s hard to compare athletes across events and genders when trying to determine who’s had the better career, but if Duplantis continues on his current path for at least a few more years, it would be almost impossible to not at least include him in the conversation of the greatest track and field athlete of all time, depending on what you prioritize when considering legacy.
Usain Bolt is probably the most popular pick for this title, winning three Olympic golds at three straight Olympics. I could also see an argument for Jesse Owens if you consider the historic legacy of winning four Olympic gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics to spoil Hitler’s showcase of Aryan racial supremacy. Jackie Joyner-Kersee is another potential candidate, holding the heptathlon record for nearly 40 years.
Duplantis has a very realistic chance of winning the most gold medals in any individual event in the history of the World Athletics Championships. Currently, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce holds the female record with five gold medals in the 100-meter dash between 2009 and 2022.
The male leader is the legendary pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, who won six consecutive championships from 1983 to 1997, with the first two of these coming when the championships were held every four years.
To tie Bubka’s record of six consecutive championships, Duplantis would need to take home gold in 2027, 2029, and 2031. Winning again in 2033 would give him sole possession of the record.
It may seem like a crazy feat, but Duplantis has been so absurdly dominant in his sport that most of us haven’t even noticed that Emmanouil Karlis has crept up the number four spot on the all-time list with a personal best of 6.08m. Despite this, Duplantis is coming off a perfect 2025 season, during which he won every one of his 17 competitions, including preliminary rounds. The yearly top 10 list from 2025 reads as follows:
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
- Duplantis
To put his dominance another way, Duplantis jumped 30 centimeters higher than second-place Karlis at the World Athletics Championships last season, or 5% higher. If Usain Bolt set his 100-meter record with the same margin of victory, the next fastest person in the race would have run 10.06 seconds.
It’s Important to Appreciate What We’re Watching
With Duplantis’ recent success, it may seem like he’ll continue competing at this superhuman level forever, but the reality is that time catches up to all of us, and there will have to come a day when one of his world records is the last one he’ll set.
I was lucky enough to see my favorite baseball player, Albert Pujols, in his rookie season, but I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to see some of the other great athletes I grew up with in their prime, like Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.
I have yet to see Duplantis jump in person, but I intend to at some point in 2026. One of the lasting memories I have from this sport is being in the crowd for the 2024 European Championships in Rome and watching Gianmarco Tamberi hush a normally rambunctious home Italian crowd ahead of his gold-winning jump. After his winning jump, he ran into the crowd and hugged the president of the country.
These types of memories last a lifetime. If you have a chance to watch Duplantis compete in 2026, I strongly encourage you to do so. There are few better feelings than the witnessing a piece of history, but I bet pole vaulting 6.31 meters is one of them.
