Experts Weigh In: Is Mondo's Big Clearance At Euros The Best Prep Performance Ever?

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Three prominent U.S. track and field historians have weighed in on the significance of 18-year-old Armand “Mondo” Duplantis’ stunning Aug. 12 clearance of 19 feet, 10.25 inches (6.05m) at the European Track and Field Championships in Berlin. 

Duplantis, vaulting for his mother Helena’s native country of Sweden, has grown up in Lafayette, La., and been a prodigal athlete since he was in grade school. 

He vaulted 19-5.50 (5.93m) at the Louisiana state championships in May, a height that at the time raised the ceiling on the high school record by 13 inches (over 2016 national record holder Chris Nilsen). 

His three PRs in one competition in Berlin have vaulted Mondo to the top -- or near it -- of the greatest prep performers in U.S. history. The mere fact that he has gone to No. 2 all-time in the world as an amateur, let alone a high school athlete, is mind-boggling.

An athlete is eligible for high school records through the summer after their high school graduation. Duplantis flew home last week and enrolled for his freshman year at Louisiana State. That essentially ends his eligibility for high school records despite the fact that he might go back to Europe and vault in the Diamond League final Aug. 31 in Brussels, Belgium. 

Jack Shepard, the longtime editor of High School Track, the annual statistics manual that is the most respected keeper of high school records, said Duplantis’ achievement in Berlin puts him a notch above any other U.S. high school athlete -- ever.

“What a way to close your high school career!” Shepard exclaimed in an e-mail. “With all the world level accolades being heaped upon Mondo Duplantis, one tends to forget that he is still a high school athlete.

“When he won the European Championship pole vault title with three consecutive first-vault clearances at 5.95m (19-6.25), 6.00m (19-8.25) and 6.05m (19-10.25), he not only became the second-highest vaulter ever, outdoors; set the Euros championship record; set an American record; three times raised the Swedish national record; three times raised the world under-20 record, and lastly, raised the high school record three times. I consider Mondo to be the greatest HS track athlete that I have ever seen and this competition to be the greatest single mark (or set of marks) ever for a high schooler.”

That’s high praise. 

For many years, the tip-top of U.S. high school performances have included a short list that includes Jim Ryun’s American record mile (3:55.3) in 1965 and Michael Carter’s amazing final throw of 81 feet, 3.50 inches (24.77m) in the shot put in 1979. 

Track statistician Walt Murphy, the longtime editor of Eastern Track and the spotter on NBC’s television broadcasts, said Duplantis’ performance is at the very least one of the all-time best.

Murphy rattled off Ryun’s 3:55.3, which secured a victory over double Olympic champion Peter Snell of Australia; Carter’s mark; Gerry Lindgren’s 10,000-meter win over the Russians in the L.A. Coliseum; and Renaldo Nehemiah’s series of 120-yard hurdles races at Eastern States in 1977 (12.9/13.0).

“Mondo might have to move to the top of the list,” Murphy said. 

Jack Pfeifer, the President of the Track and Field Writers of America and another noted track historian, praised Duplantis but cautioned that he doesn’t belong “in his own special category.”

After all, pole vaulter Casey Carrigan was a high schooler at Orting WA when he made the 1968 Olympic team. He also took attempts at what was then a world record height of 17-10.50 at the Golden West Invitational in 1969, at a time when the equipment was far more rudimentary than it is today. 

Duplantis has yet to attempt a world-record height. 

“I think the kid is terrific,” Pfeifer said of Duplantis. “But if you’re talking about history, even in that event, there was an American who had already been on the Olympic team who was attempting a world record. The event has changed a lot since then, but this was a time when no one yet had cleared 18 feet. What I’m saying is, it’s comparable.”

Lindgren’s 8:40 2-mile indoors. Carter’s record put. Pfeifer believes those performances are every bit as ground-breaking.

“Do I think Duplantis’ record will last as long as Carter’s record has lasted? Not necessarily,” Pfeifer said. “How many guys this year went over 18 feet?”

Another prep vaulter who attended high school in the U.S. this spring, Sondre Guttormsen of Norway, cleared 18-10.25 (5.75m) in the same competition as Duplantis. 

That clearance made Guttormsen the No. 2 all-time prep performer, but it’s still a foot away from Duplantis.

“There are people in high school who have done things just as tremendous (as Duplantis), so I’m not going to put him in a unique category,” Pfeifer said. “Now, if he had cleared 20 feet, or 20-2, then maybe I’d have to!”