You Can Go Ahead And Throw Another $100,000 Bonus Check In Mondo Duplantis' Bank Account After He Set His 13th Pole Vault World Record
ATTILA KISBENEDEK. Getty Images.Mondo Duplantis might have the greatest gig going right now in sports. He's the greatest pole vaulter to ever live. At just 25-years-old, he has won 2 Olympic Gold medals. He's won multiple World Championships, and multiple World Indoor Championships. And most importantly, he set his first world record at 6.17 meters back in 2020.
In the 5 years since setting that world record, he has broken his own record 12 more times. He set the world record at 6.18, 6.19, 6.20, 6.21, 6.22, 6.23, 6.24, 6.25, 6.26, 6.27, 6.28, and now yesterday he cleared 6.29m.
The most impressive thing Armand Duplantis has done has been making it known to the general public how the world record bonus structure works in track & field. By now, it seems like most people know the deal by now even if they don't follow track & field at all. Every time an athlete breaks a world record, they receive a $100,000 bonus from World Athletics. And that's what he gets even before the bonuses from his main sponsor, Puma, hands out.
Clearly Puma needs to do some book keeping after all these world records are piling up.
So if you were wondering why he only continues to go up by one centimeter every time he breaks his own world record, when clearly he has the ability to clear it by much more than that? Well it's because he's making $100,000 for every centimeter he goes up right now.
Go ahead and grab a ruler real quick. Just look at the size of a centimeter. Now try to picture $100,000 inside of each centimeter. Mondo Duplantis has racked up $1,300,000 by moving his world record up by a combined 5 inches. And until someone goes out there and sets a height he can't clear on his own, he'll keep working his way up and up. I can't wait to see where it finally caps off at.
Moral of the story? Get your kids into pole vaulting.