Since first breaking the pole vault world record in February 2020, Mondo has been in a class of his own. He won gold at the 2020 Olympic Games, the 2022 World Athletics Championships – both indoor and outdoor –the 2022 European Championships and the Diamond League. He also improved on his world record performance twice in 2022, which now stands at 6.21 meters.
At only 23 years old, Mondo, who started pole vaulting in his parents’ backyard as a child, says he still has more to achieve in his sport.
“I’m very grateful for the position I’m in right now, but I feel that there is still a lot more work ahead of me and that I can reach much higher goals,” Mondo told PUMA after winning the award. “I’m going to try to keep pushing the limits, pushing the barriers, and see how far I can go. I really believe that I still have more in the tank.”
Mondo, who has been a PUMA Athlete since 2019, performs in PUMA’s EvoSpeed Tokyo Nitro shoes, which combines PUMA’s responsive, nitrogen-injected foam midsole with a state-of-the-art carbon-fibre infused upper and a lightweight spike outsole.
Current world records in PUMA shoes are triple jump (Jonathan Edwards, 1995), 1,000m (Noah Ngeny, 1999), 3,000m Steeplechase (Saif Saaeed Shaheen, 2004), 100m and 200m (Usain Bolt, 2009), 400m hurdles (Karsten Warholm, 2021), and pole vault (Mondo Duplantis, 2022).