Why does Armand Duplantis only break records by 1 centimeter?

The 2024 Paris Olympics was one for the ages, with standout performances across the park. But there was one athlete who really touched the sky: Armand Duplantis!

The Swede, considered the best pole vaulter in the world, took home a gold medal and – and the world record – with his 6.25 m jump.

And Duplantis did it again at the Chorzow meeting in Poland a few days ago, clearing a height of 6.26 m.

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While it may seem rare to see a world record broken, for Duplantis it is a trend, with this being the tenth record of his career.

In fact, the Swedish star seems to break records with such ease many have speculated that he may be deliberately breaking only breaking his records by a fraction each time.

Since the beginning of his career, Duplantis has demonstrated that he has enormous potential, which he only wishes to demonstrate centimeter by centimeter.

Why settle for so little, when he could completely destroy the world record? Some suggest a little for the glory, a lot for the money.

He wants to steal the glory from Sergei Bubka, a former Ukrainian pole vaulter whose career allowed him to break 35 world records in the discipline, with indoor and outdoor jumps not being included together in the 90s.

The money generated by these new world records that have become commonplace is also a huge driving force for the Swede.

When a pole vaulter breaks a world record, he actually receives a bonus of around $50,000 (approximately £39,000 or €46,000) as reported by Sportskeeda, which is not insignificant, especially in a sport like this.

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Above all, what we must not forget is that he is an athlete whose goal is to make people talk about him, and to continue to earn a decent living.

If he went straight for the highest possible jump, it would be a huge media boom, but it wouldn't last long.

It is also true that an athlete needs motivation to continue training, and if he goes straight to his highest level, improving on that is going to be a tough task.

"Any athlete would do the same thing, it allows him to stay in the game, to maintain motivation over the long haul. Because we pretty much all know that he can do 6.30m, he can do it right now," former pole vaulter Philippe Collet told French outlet Le Parisien.

Questioned by L'Équipe, Duplantis for his part dodged the issue: "I'm trying centimeter by centimeter on purpose? I don't really know what to say to that. I have no idea how many times I could break a world record, I'm just trying to go as high as possible."

At only 24 years old, Duplantis still has a lot of time ahead of him. This will allow him to cash in on all his records until he silences all his critics with a 6.30m jump.

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