On Monday, Sweden’s Armand Duplantis captured the gold medal in pole vault with an impressive new world record of 6.25 meters. This marks the ninth time Duplantis has set a new world record. He first achieved this feat in February 2020 and has since surpassed it eight more times.
The pole vault world record has seen significant milestones since Sergey Bubka of the USSR first reached the six-meter mark in July 1985 in Paris. Bubka set the record 12 times, pushing the limits of the sport.
Here’s a look at the evolution of the pole vault world record in the six-meter era:
- 6.00m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), July 13, 1985, Paris
- 6.01m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), July 8, 1986, Moscow
- 6.03m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), June 23, 1987, Prague
- 6.05m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), June 9, 1988, Bratislava
- 6.06m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), July 10, 1988, Nice
- 6.07m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), May 6, 1991, Shizuoka
- 6.08m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), June 9, 1988, Moscow
- 6.09m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), July 8, 1991, Formia
- 6.10m: Sergey Bubka (USSR), August 5, 1991, Malmo
With Duplantis’s latest record, the pole vault continues to be a thrilling spectacle of athletic achievement.