Swedish reporter: Being a pole vaulter, speed is a crucial part in your sport. You’re probably one of the fastest, if not the fastest in the world. How do you practice speed?

DUPLANTIS: The only way to be fast and to run fast is to run fast. You have to train fast. You have to do sprint training while you’re running with high intensity. That’s the only way to get faster. You have to be running with a lot of speed a lot. I do a lot of sprint training. I train like how a sprinter would train with a little more gymnastics, pole vault-specific exercises mixed in between it. For the most part, I try to train like a sprinter and the focal point of that training is speed and trying to get as fast as I possibly can. Because I know that directly translates to higher jumps and more energy through the takeoff and on the runway.

Swedish reporter: Do you have any key workouts that you can share with us?

DUPLANTIS: For me, everything is quite short. The longest I run is 150s. Everything is fast. I do sled work. I do in-and-outs, where you have the cones every 15m and it’s like sprint-float-sprint-float. I have other sprint work, where it’s blocks and other short accelerations. The most important thing depending on what event and what you do is to run fast, you have to be running fast. You have to have really high intensity in your sprint training. That’s the only way to see improvement in your speed.

CITIUS MAG: Pole vault is a special sport for spectators. I don’t think people watching the sport sometimes realize the small, tiny adjustments that you make throughout each attempt. Could you break down those small things you do and what you’d tell a spectator to look for when watching?

DUPLANTIS: It is quite complicated. A little bit of it is kind of similar to golf to where you’re trying to find your numbers. You’re trying to pick what pole to use, where to run from and you’re trying to get those numbers right with your coach, who is pretty much your caddy. You’re just trying to pick the right pole for the situation based on how the poles are moving and bending and where to grip up on the pole and then where the run is as far as trying to find a consistent rhythm and whatnot. It shouldn’t change too much but it can vary a little bit depending on the surface or weather or how you’re feeling that day because you’re always a bit different. You’re just trying to lock in those things – and also the depth of the standards, you can change it from 0cm from the edge of the box to 80cm so you’re always messing with that too. That all depends on the speed you have on the runway and the pole you’re using, the way you’re gripping on it, the stiffness. That’s basically what it is. There’s a lot of different thing things you can look at from the jump to determine what you’re going to do on the next jump to lock in those numbers and make sure that everything is right. It’s complicated I guess because every day is a fresh day and every day is new. You always have to keep adjusting and go with the flow depending on what weather and day is giving you.

CITIUS MAG: It’s so strategic and calculated.

DUPLANTIS: Yeah, it’s quite calculated but I guess you get used to that whole process when you jump a lot. I think the most important thing is understanding that every day is new. Some days will give you something new that is not necessarily what worked yesterday that will work today. You have to be able to adjust and go with the flow and be able to do whatever is best for the moment rather than overcomplicate the things.