One day before his World Cup final in Eugene, Mondo Duplantis shows up at a coffee shop. He is in the company of his girlfriend, Desiré, and a friend, the Belgian pole vaulter Ben Broeders, who also competes in Oregon and has reached the final (he is eleventh, in 5.70m).
And the observer disguises himself by tinkling his coffee cup with his spoon, and thus observes the group.
And he likes what he sees.
Duplantis (22) is gentile. He asks his companions what they want to drink. She gets up and walks to the bar and orders and pays. And then he brings them their coffees.
And then he sits down with them and they all talk quietly and relaxed, and when they're done, maybe half an hour later, Duplantis clears the table and carries the cups to the bar, and then he grabs a paper napkin and goes back to his place and he kneels down and cleans up the coffee that had spilled on the floor.
Yes, I like what I see, there goes a magnificent young man and that is why, when he passes me before leaving, I say:
-Mondo, good luck tomorrow.
(Good luck tomorrow)
And he stares at me and smiles and answers:
-Thank you, man.
(...)
Today is tomorrow and Mondo Duplantis, the Swede who is the new Bubka and is the world pole vault record holder, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 and European champion in Berlin 2018, I want him on my team.
I love him and the entire stadium loves him, and even his teammates and rival pole vaulters, who surround him and advise him and, once dismounted, invite him to look for a new world record, the perfect corsage for the first World Cups to be played in the United States
(the first in its 39-year history, since its birth, in Helsinki 1983)
And there goes Duplantis: all the rivals have already fallen.
Renaud Lavillenie finished fifth at 5.87, the same as Thiago Braz. Nilsen and Obiena have not gone beyond 5.94m (silver and bronze).
Duplantis exceeds 6m to the first and 6.06, the same.
And then he tells the judges:
-¡Subidlo and 6.21!
And the public goes crazy: it would be the absolute world record (Duplantis is 6.16m outdoors and 6.20m indoors).
¡Fiesta!
And there goes Duplantis, the young man who had discovered the pole vault in the backyard of the family home in Lafayette (Louisiana), stimulated by Greg (60), his father and his coach, who in his day had risen up to 5, 80m.
Duplantis fiddles with the material, lies down and thinks and listens.
And in the end, when all the tests are over and Tobi Amusan has broken his universal record for the 100m hurdles (in the semifinals: 12s12) and Michael Norman has won his second gold (men's 4x400) and Sydney McLaughlin, another also (women's 4x400) , and there is no one else left on the track, the Swede executes the second attempt and flies!
Fly up to 6.21m, it is already the absolute world record, both indoors and outdoors!
And then, beside himself, he executes a forward somersault and climbs onto the stands to hug his father Greg and his mother Helena, who had been a volleyball player in Sweden, and Eugene can't believe it, because not even a Hollywood screenwriter I would have imagined such a closure.
And the chronicler says to himself: "Tomorrow, if I have time, I'll stop by the cafeteria, to see if Duplantis reappears."
