How Mondo Won the Gold and Started a Dog Fight (almost)

(This should be a “Sunday Story”, but it’s too long to wait!!)

Olympics

It’s the best week of the Olympics.  Sure, last week was the week of Simone Biles and Gymnastics (and the guys did well too).  There was all of the swimming, Ledecky, Leon and the rest.  And, surprising for me, there was even two men’s basketball games.   This from a guy who’s only watched three NBA games in his life (one live in Cleveland).  But there is something compelling about the best of the best finding a way to work together, as the “underdog” rest of the world tries to find a crack in the armor.  Lebron, Steph, KD, and the rest are so good; they just raise their game to a step (maybe two or three) above the rest every time.

But my best week is this week, because this week is track and field.  

(If you don’t know, I coached track and field at the high school level for forty years, and I’m still a track official, and a “clinic” pole vaulting coach).  

I don’t know why, but my wife, Jenn, is tired of track.  It might be because it’s on all day (Paris is six hours ahead), and then there’s the “highlights” that are on all through primetime.  The phrase, “haven’t I seen this before” has been uttered more than once, as has the suggestion to watch reruns of the “Yellowstone” series.

Track and Field

But it’s the Olympics, and it’s track and field.  Once every four years I get to see “my sport” highlighted to the world.  While I made my “mark” as a pole vault coach, I coached every other event as well.  So I was fascinated by the men’s shot put finals (it rained, and these highly prepared Olympians were completely non-plussed by a slick ring), or the heats of the 200 meter dash, or the strategic 1500’s.  And I definitely am a “relay” guy.  The dreaded 4×100’s start on Thursday.  The US should win both men’s and women’s races, but we have blown exchanges in the past as often as gotten on the podium, so there’s always that tension.

And there’s a “new” way to watch the games, one that makes a coach like me very, very, happy.  Instead of just seeing the highlights of a field event, shot put or discus or pole vault; you can click on a streaming service (Peacock) and watch the event start to finish, without interruption.  It’s just like being there, even to hearing the “private” conversations between the athletes and their coaches on the sidelines.

Prelims

I was up at 4:15 am to watch the men’s pole vault qualifying.  The technical detail:  the Olympic pole vault starts with thirty or so competitors.  They have a preliminary competition on side-by-side runways, whittling the competition down to the final thirteen or twelve.  Then they stop, bringing the finalists back for a brand new competition in a couple of days.  So at 4:15 I got to watch a split screen vault, two pits going at the same time, and for a couple of hours there was the “thrill of survival, and the agony of defeat”.  Survival to make the finals or defeat by failing to clear high enough to go on.

Monday, those surviving athletes came back for the Olympic men’s pole vault finals.  And again, it was streamed live, start to finish.  This time it was an evening competition, which meant that it was on all afternoon here in the US.

Mondo

Now I’m not going to get too technical.  But here’s the “scouting report”.  The pre-eminent pole vaulter of our time is a twenty-four year old from Louisiana named Armand Duplantis, but known by his nickname, Mondo (also the name of the most expensive track surface).   He owns the world record, and was the gold medalist in the 2020 (2021) Tokyo games.   So here’ the “joke” about Mondo:  what would you get if an American world class pole vaulter and a Swedish world class heptathlete and volleyball player had a baby?  The answer is Mondo.

He vaults for Sweden, even though he grew up in Louisiana.  There’s a long story about that, the dreaded politics of track and field and a terrible decision by the USA Track and Field powers back when Mondo was fifteen.  Suffice is to say, Mondo started vaulting before he could talk, and he “vaulted his age” from the time he was seven until he was twenty. (A note:  the best vaulters in the world are in the “6 meter club”, that’s a little over 19’8” inches.  Only twenty-four vaulters in history have cleared that; only seven are still active today).  Mondo is coached by his Mom and Dad.  Mom does all the conditioning training, Dad, a 19 foot vaulter of the early 1990’s, does the technical training.  

World Class

Did I say I wasn’t going to get too technical?  Oh well, anyway Mondo has been world class since he was eighteen, and some older vaulters took him under their wings, that is, before he flew far over them.  The best known of those are the former world record holder French vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, and the best “American” vaulter, Sam Kendricks, both  “6 Meter” guys.

In the Olympic men’s pole vault, there were really two competitions going on.  The first was the battle for silver and bronze medals: who would get on the podium.  There were good vaulters from China, Philippines, Turkey, Greece, and Sam from the USA. (Renaud is recovering from injury and unable to vault.  He sat with Mondo’s Dad in the stands).  They battled through to 5.95 meters (that’s about 19’7”). 

 Sam Kendricks won with a great clearance, beating the young Greek vaulter, Emmanouil Karalis.  The joy both of them showed, clearing their best heights (Karalis went 5.90, 19’4”) and earning medals was exciting.  And the camaraderie of the vaulters, winning and losing was uplifting.  There are so few who understand what it takes to be that good, their shared experience makes for a tight “club” of competitors.  The battle is as much against the “bar” as it is about the others.

The Bar

Oh, and that second competition; Mondo versus the bar.  He took vaults at 5.70, 5.85, and 5.95 clearing each bar by “a mile”.  At 6 meters, it was just Mondo and Sam left (vaulters from Louisiana and Mississippi, Sweden and the USA, both coached by their Dad’s).  Sam made three great attempts at the bar, but failed to clear.  Mondo “smoked” 6 meters to win the gold.  He then moved onto the Olympic Record, “only” 6.10 meters (a shade over 20’).  And he smoked that as well.

Which left only his own world record height.  Mondo set the bar at 6.25 (20’6”), one centimeter (about ½ an inch) over his own record of 6.24.   

He was “fired up”, a crowd of almost 60,000 focused on the vault and clapping in unison (literally directed by Sam at the end of the runway).  His first two attempts were close – and it allowed Mondo (and Dad and Renaud) to get the crossbar adjusted to the exact right place.  So he lined up for his final attempt (you get three “fails”, then you’re out).  Sam got the crowd going again, and everyone was on their feet.

The Vault

Here in Pataskala, so was I.  And for a moment, I forgot that I was surrounded by five snoozing dogs, our rescue “pups” who were wonderfully calm through the entire competition.  I know better, I can’t get too excited watching the Bengals football games, my yelling makes them all go nuts.  But it was Mondo, and the world record, and it was going to happen…

Mondo came down the runway, one of the fastest men ever to pick up a pole.  He hit the plant, and swung upside down on the bent pole, made personally for him by the Spirit pole manufacturer.  It shot him vertically up in the air, just barely over the bar. And Mondo snaked his body, chest, and arms over the top of the barrier.  It stayed up without a bounce – a new world record, on the biggest stage in track and field.

The Dogs

So I did yell a little – just like I would from the sidelines of a vault competition.  I yelled “GET IT” as he slid over the bar.  And I found myself surrounded by three barking dogs, one in full “wolf howl” mode, shocked to action by my cry.  So while Mondo celebrated on the track, I tried to calm everyone down, before three over-excited dogs turned into a dog-melee.  

They finally chilled, distracted by the promise of dinner coming soon.  And Mondo, Sam, and the Greek kid celebrated their medals together, posing with their national flags around the track.  Sweden won, the USA second, and Greece third.  But what I saw was one of the reasons I got involved in pole vault in the first place.  Three vaulters taking joy in their shared success in an event that can sometimes give joy, but can just as often cruelly end up in failure.  It was a great competition – and there were no dog fights either!!

The Sunday Story Series

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.