PARIS – So that everyone understands how high Mondo Duplantis went Monday night at Stade de France in winning the Olympic men’s pole vault, a big – and we are talking now a very tall –  giraffe, at the tippy top of its ears, is way, way up there. Like, it’s 20 feet down to the ground.

Born and raised in Louisiana to an American dad and Swedish mom, Duplantis competes for Sweden. On the third of his three tries, having raised the bar a full 15 centimeters from what he had previously cleared easily, the crowd howling, truly one of the best bits of Olympic theater in recent memory, Duplantis went 6.25 meters to win gold and set a new world record – 20 feet, 6 inches.

 The new record was exactly one centimeter over the prior Duplantis mark, 6.24. The man is a showman. Like someone before him.

“I knew he would do it,” said Sergei Bubka, who is now 60 and knows a thing or two about pole vaulting and, at a newish chapter in his professional world, is, now more than ever, thriving, as ever his authentic self.