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Why Does U.S.-Born Olympian Armand Duplantis Compete for Sweden?
Being born in America doesn't necessarily preclude you from representing another country at the Olympics.
Armand "Mondo" Duplantis displayed exemplary athletic prowess this week by setting yet another pole vaulting record at the 2024 Paris Olympics. By clearing an impressive height of 6.25 meters (that's 20 feet, 6 inches for us Americans), the 24-year-old Swedish competitor took home his second-ever gold medal. He previously won the top award in Tokyo.
“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was," Duplantis told the official Olympics website. "It’s one of those things that don’t really feel real, such an out-of-body experience. It’s still hard to kind of land right now. What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. [My] biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of."
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He continued: “I tried to clear my thoughts as much as I could," he said of the momentous reception he received from the stands. "The crowd was going crazy. It was so loud in there, it sounded like an American football game. I have a little bit of experience being in a 100,000-capacity stadium, but I was never the center of attention. [I was] just trying to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and they were giving me a lot of it. It worked out."
A mind-blowing achievement for a Swedish Olympian...born in Louisiana?!
Where is Armand Duplantis from?
Duplantis was born in the town of Lafayette, Louisiana in 1999 to a pair of athlete parents: American pole vaulter Greg Duplantis and Swedish long jumper Helena Hedlund. When it came time to pursue an Olympic career, however, Duplantis decided to represent his mother's country of origin in accordance with the Olympic Charter: "A competitor who is a national of two or more countries at the same time may represent either one of them, as he may elect."
According to a video posted on the official Olympics YouTube channel, it was Swedish coach Jonas Anshelm who wooed Mondo away from competing for Team USA. "His older brother, Andreas, represented Sweden as a pole vaulter as well. I went [reached out] via Facebook, asking Andreas asking for (his father) Greg's phone number," Anshelm explained. "I said, 'I would like to have Mondo in the Swedish team. At that time, it was a no, he wanted to represent the U.S. ... I thought, 'Well, I might give him another call.' What I did mention was that I was very happy if Greg would like to be in the national team as a coach. A couple weeks later, Greg called me up and said, 'We're on. We'll go for Sweden.'"
Thus, starting in 2015, Duplantis started representing Sweden in international competition.
Still, his roots in Louisiana are evident. Duplantis attended Louisiana State University, where he competed on the same track and field team as fellow Olympian Sha'Carri Richardson.
"It's weird in a way, because I think both of us, we knew we were capable of these kinds of things. But, you know, in sports, not everything pans out the way that you think it is going to," he told Olympics.com in June.
"I'm so proud of her," he continued about Richardson. "It's such a weird thing to think where we were then, not even just as athletes, [but] as people, too. And then to see where we are now, it's super special."
Armand Duplantis Sets Pole Vault World Record at 2024 Olympic Games
Duplantis has broken the world pole vaulting record a total of nine times throughout his career so far. The milestone he cleared at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was a height of 6.25 meters (20 feet, 6 inches). That's 0.01 meters higher than the 6.24 meters record he set at the Xiamen Diamond League back in the spring.
He first broke the world record in February 2020 and he's been pushing boundaries ever since.
Who is Mondo Duplantis’ Girlfriend Desire Inglander?
Mondo's girlfriend, Swedish model and social media influencer Desiré Inglander, was on hand to celebrate his achievement with a kiss. According to Us Weekly, the two first met at a party in Stockholm in 2020, but Inglander was not interested in the athlete's initial advances.
"The problem was, people flirt in a very different way in Sweden than where I’m from,” Duplantis admitted to Vogue Scandinavia in June. “[Where I’m from] there’s a lot more talking — you talk for a long time. So at the party, I was just trying to talk to Desiré, like ‘Hey, what’s up, I’m Mondo...’ but she didn’t want anything to do with it or me. She just wanted to dance.”
After the pole vaulter made several follow-ups over social media, the two began dating. The couple made their relationship official over Instagram in March 2021.
Since then, Inglander has been visible supporter of Duplantis, often seen at meets to cheer him on. She posted a TikTok video of Duplantis setting the latest record, writing: "Forever your biggest fan."
"Desiré brings me such a great balance in life,” Duplantis said in the Vogue Scandinavia interview. "It’s so nice to be able to come home and escape into a completely different world, absorb ourselves in each other and whatever we’re doing. She’s a great travel buddy."
