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PARIS — When he was a young pole vault prodigy practicing jumps in his parents’ Louisiana backyard, Armand “Mondo” Duplantis would inevitably dream up the same scenario.
He’d be competing in the Olympic final. The bar would be at world-record height. And he’d have one jump left.
“I must have visualized that moment a zillion times in my life,” Duplantis said.
It’s tempting to say that Duplantis’ childhood dream became reality at the Stade De France on Monday night, but his younger self couldn’t possibly have been this imaginative or impractical.