The Tokyo National Stadium roared as Mondo Duplantis stood there with the pole in his hand for his third attempt. First attempt: 6.05. Second attempt: 6.15. It wasn’t the world title at stake, but the legacy he has been building. He started running, perfect stride, and the pole in his grip struck the ground as the pole vaulter launched himself into the air. “We will never, never forget the night that Mondo Duplantis lit up the stadium and captured the headlines and the hearts of everyone. He’s a world record holder again. What a night and what a moment for Mondo,” said the commentator after he landed. Mondo Duplantis had gone as high as 6.30 m. Mondo Duplantis had broken the world record for the 14th time.

But there was one man who had been doing this before the Swedish athlete was born, an athlete who competed for the USSR and, after its dissolution, for Ukraine. This is one of the guys referred to in Duplantis’ words when he said, “My father, Bubka, and Lavillenie are my heroes.” You guessed it right, it’s Sergei Bubka, the man standing between the Swedish athlete and the Greatest of All Time status. Bubka was ruling the pole vault scene back in the 90s.

The first World Athletics Championships kicked off in Helsinki in 1983, and coming in for the Soviet Union, Bubka took the gold in the pole vault with 5.70 m. This was followed by golds in 1983 and 1987, and then came the four-peat in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997. Sure, he missed in 1985, but in that year, he secured an indoor world record of 19 feet (6.03 m). He had already passed the 6.00 m mark back in Paris on 13 June 1985, being the first person to do so. Today, he comfortably sits at six world championships to his name, double that of Duplantis.

1985, 1987, 1991, and 1995: these are the years the Ukrainian pole vaulter won the World Indoor Championships. Mondo Duplantis has done the same in 2022, 2024, and 2025. The 1988 Olympic Champion (his only) gave rest to his world records after hitting 6.14 meters in Sestriere, Italy, on 31 July 1994, six years before the 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist (his second after 2021) was born. But then in 2020, Mondo Duplantis broke this record by one meter at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome.

“World record — finally! It is so cool,” Duplantis said. “I wanted to get over these 6.15 so badly. Everybody kept talking about it, it was a big chip on my shoulder … When I did it, it was more relief than joy.” Since that day, he has been on a spree of breaking world records, the latest one being the Tokyo World Athletics Championship, where he banked 270k. Though he holds 14 world records, Sergei Bubka has 17 outdoor world records and 18 indoor world records.

Now, one might think that Duplantis needs 21 more world records to rival Bubka, but he cannot set indoor world records. In 2000, the IAAF amended its record-ratification policy so that a performance “in an athletics facility which conforms to Rule 140 with or without roof” may be ratified as a world record. So some fans argue that one more world title and another Olympic gold will make Duplantis the undisputed GOAT. Meanwhile, the two of them have nothing but respect for each other.

A mutual respect between Sergei Bubka and Mondo Duplantis

Back in December 2020, the Swedish pole vaulter said, “Growing up … you see Bubka as almost this mythological creature. He was not real in the things that he was doing, they didn’t seem possible. Any record where you can knock him down a ranking is a pretty special feeling.” Sure thing, Bubka was an inspiration to him. When you look at a man who has created 35 world records, he really feels mythical. Bubka had also retired in 2001, 2 years after Mondo’s birth.

In the 2025 Paris Olympics, Mondo Duplantis once again broke the world record as he cleared 6.25 m. Speaking of that, Bubka said, “He is a great guy; he is a great athlete. We are all proud of him. This is history. Everyone wants to win, but he is very solid, and he is a strong boy. He performed well. I am very happy for him because I know his family. I used to compete with his father.”

Greg Duplantis, Duplantis’ father, was a competitive pole vaulter as well and competed against Sergei Bubka during the 1980s and early 1990s. Now Duplantis is competing with his records; it’s now not a question of if he’ll break them, it’s a question of when.