Madrid: Long before he became a global star with two Olympic medals, Swedish-American pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis remembers meeting a humble Neeraj Chopra, who remained the “same nice guy” even after achieving astonishing success.
Fast forward to 2025, Duplantis is hailed as the greatest pole vaulter of all time — a seven-time senior global champion and the current world record holder at 6.27m — while Neeraj has cemented his legacy as India’s greatest-ever athlete, with a gold and silver from the last two Olympics.
On the eve of the Laureus World Sports Awards, Duplantis reflected on his early interactions with Neeraj, calling him a “huge inspiration.”
“We’ve interacted quite a bit actually and also being able to interact with him before Olympics in Tokyo and after the Olympics too when he was able to have that big viral moment and inspire the whole country of India which was super cool,” the 25-year-old, who has been nominated for Sportsman of the Year at the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards, told PTI during an interview.
“He was still the same guy, same nice, caring guy as I met years back. We were at the same competition maybe the first time in like 2016 World Junior Championships, he also exploded on the scene there. He’s a huge, huge inspiration.
“I love what he does, he’s a really talented and great athlete and what he’s also doing just for sports in India is a really, is a really amazing thing.”
The Louisiana-born pole vaulter, who competes for Sweden, boasts an impressive CV. He has Olympic gold medals in Paris and Tokyo, and is a two-time world outdoor champion (2022, 2023), three-time world indoor champion (2022, 2024, 2025), and the reigning European champion.
Asked whether competing in India is on his bucket list, Duplantis said he wants to perform in the country rather than just make a courtesy visit.