For Olympics fans, watching pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis fly his way to gold—and a world record—was one of the biggest thrills of the 2024 games. But that six-second moment came with endless hours of training that honed very specific attributes: speed, strength, and “a kind of controlled fearlessness,” says his father and coach, former Olympian Greg Duplantis. “That third one is kind of, you either have it or you don’t, although you can work on controlling it,” Greg, just back from Paris, tells Fortune.
“Some pole vaulters are a little bit too daring, and they go over the edge and hurt themselves doing risky activities ...
Mondo is not like that. But he’s very, very fearless.” He’s also very strong without having bulky muscle, and lithe—a body type that works well for pole vaulters, who must not only be lightning fast in the run-up, but powerful enough to absorb the extreme shock of the pole hitting what’s called the box, for the launch, and the force of flying over the bar.
“Your body has to be very strong,” Greg says, “the whole core from top to bottom, to handle that without getting hurt—from the hands, the wrists, the shoulders, the upper back, lower back, your legs, Achilles, everything.” Pole vaulting, though, was just one of 48 track and field events in this year’s Olympics—all requiring their own specific superpowers, workouts , and, in some cases, body shapes and sizes. “That’s what’s so awesome about track and field, is .