The crowd at the Japan National Stadium cheered out loud when Mondo Duplantis started running on the field to take a perfect stride and broke his own world record for the 14th time. It was followed by an exposition from the commentary box, “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.” Indeed, the stadium was roaring with the spectators present in Japan. But more interestingly, it was the pole vaulter’s home crowd that tuned in to their television to behold the 25-year-old in all his glory.

Moreover, Sweden’s primary public television channel, SVT-1 (operated by Sveriges Television), provided the platform to millions in Sweden to witness the pole vaulting finals in Tokyo. And, as many chose to switch on their digital screens, SVT-1 recorded some very interesting numbers.

When Duplantis soared as high as 6.30 meters, 75% of the total Swedish TV audience was cheering for him on SVT-1 – the highest share ever reported for World Athletics Championships coverage in Sweden. The total population of Sweden is 10.7 million. If we count all of that in, the number of people who tuned in from the Scandinavian nation was 8.25 million. Crazy numbers. Had this been the case for the USA (NBC, and Peacock would have recorded a traffic of 75%), then the number from the US would have been approximately 250 million. Things get more interesting when you realize that Mondo is half American.

The World record holder is a dual citizen of the United States and Sweden. Born in Lafayette, Louisiana, in 1999, he holds American nationality through his father, Greg Duplantis, a former American pole vaulter. His mother, Helena Hedlund, is Swedish and was a heptathlete and volleyball player. Interestingly, Mondo chose to represent Sweden and is often considered as the national hero of Sweden.

In fact, if overall viewership is considered, Japan’s national network, TBS saw huge TV audiences as the championships captured the nation’s attention. There was a peak of more than 12 million viewers in Japan on the opening day, and audiences were well over 10 million for each evening session. The vast majority of evening sessions surpassed both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games TV audiences for athletics.

Moreover, as per Sweden Herald, the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships is ranked in top three for the highly viewed event in the last week. Courtesy, Mondo Duplantis’ record-breaking victory in Japan. And on top of that, the 25-year-old is leaving with the most amount of money.

Mondo Duplantis: The richest athlete from the 2025 World Athletics Championships

Others might come close, but no one has earned as much as Mondo did in the 2025 World Athletics Championships. To start it off, the gold medal. The World record might have been a doubt at some point, but the gold medal? Never. Emmanouil Karalis of Greece went as high as 6 meters to claim the silver, while Australia’s Kurtis Marschall earned the bronze, equaling his personal best of 5.95 meters. Mondo had gone 6.30m to claim the victory. As per the prize money decided by the World Athletics, he gets the US$70,000. On top of that, he’ll also recieve $100,000 as world record bonus.

World Athletics has announced, “Athletes who set a world record will be eligible* for a special award of US$100,000 offered by TDK and World Athletics. The performance must be an improvement on the existing World Athletics world record. Performances that equal the existing world record will not be eligible for a world record award.” Duplantis’ 6.30m leaves no box unchecked, bringing in an extra $100,000 to that 70k. Now this is the kind of prize money that any athlete good enough to break the world record can claim, but not a lot of athletes get bonuses from their sponsors.

Under a post on Instagram post which talked about the Swedish athlete setting a 13th world record (6.29 meters at Istvan Gyulai Memorial), Puma replied, “Please, give us a rest”. This is because the brand is paying a fixed sum that is not known to Duplantis whenever he shatters the world record. The prize range is between 30,000 and 100,000. So on the high side, we could have an extra addition of another 100,000 to his already impressive prize money pool.