"I really love what I do. I love everything that surrounds this sport, it's so much fun. Doing all that is always a dream", explains the 23-year-old Swede, sitting on the stadium track covered with Liévin.

The fear of weariness is removed in this athlete who reigns supreme over his discipline, of which he is Olympic, world and European champion in title.

He knows he is still far from the prize list of Sergei Bubka, six-time world champion.

"He had a better career than me, for the moment," smiles the Scandinavian.

About the Tsar of the pole, he adds, full of audacity and mischief: "But if we were face to face, I think I would beat him much more often than he would beat me!"

But, when he jumps, it is not against Sergueï Bubka that Armand Duplantis is fighting.

It is against himself.

"The main goal is always to be better than myself, than what I was before," he says.

Against himself, but also for himself.

"I feel like I've proven a lot," he says.

"Now I don't feel like I have to prove anything to anyone, I just have to prove some more things to myself."

In other words, the priority is to improve your own world record.

So much so that "Mondo" has not yet decided on a possible participation in the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul (March 2-5).

"Take this game to another level"

This world record, he has already beaten it five times.

The first time, in Torun (Poland) on February 8, 2020, he crossed 6.17 m.

The last, at the World Championships in Eugene (United States) last July, he carried the reference mark to 6.21 m.

This winter, Duplantis failed twice to improve his record, in Uppsala (Sweden) on February 2 and then in Berlin on Friday.

Despite two easy victories, at 6.10 and 6.06 m respectively.

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis at the Berlin meeting, February 10, 2023 © Odd ANDERSEN / AFP/Archives

"To pass 6.22 m, everything must be really perfect," he admitted in Berlin.

What is a "perfect jump"?

When asked, the Swede first starts with a frank laugh: "Who knows? It depends!"

Then suddenly turns serious.

"I don't think I've done it yet. I think I've been close to it. I have to be really on point, really complete, from running to pushing."

“You always have to try to get better, always think about how to improve, to get that extra centimeter,” he adds.

"I know that I still have room for improvement on certain aspects of my jump," he admits.

Once he has erased these shortcomings, the Swede is confident that he “(will face) a few higher bars in the next few years”.

Will he be helped in this by his opponents, a young generation of pole vaulters capable of jumping beyond 6 meters?

"It's always great to have competition, it makes you raise your level. The more guys there are to cross the 6 meters, the more it will motivate me to take this game to another level".

And this, perhaps from Wednesday in Liévin, a room he likes.

He considers having lived there, in 2020, "one of the best meetings of (his) life".

He won with 6.07m, then failed three times to raise his world record to 6.19m.

"I like the track here, I like the feel of it, and I know it's a place where you can jump higher."

And make the "perfect jump"?

© 2023 AFP