Armand Duplantis

If I feel like I am becoming stagnant then I will try something new. I am always going to be trying to get to a new level.

I want to win everything there is to win, and do it more times than anyone else has done it.

Renaud was my idol growing up ever since I was 10 years old and I was just getting into pole vaulting and starting to become obsessed with him in general and the way he jumps, how he can do what he was doing.

It's hard to believe sometimes that I am the world record holder.

Going over 6.20m for the first time, it's hard to explain. It's something that you can only dream of.

Ever since I started vaulting in my backyard, when I was in diapers, I wanted to be the best that's ever lived - to break the world record.

Each world record feels like it brings something a bit different out of me.

I want to do more than Bubka's done, for sure. More Olympics than him, more world championships.

I always thought I had the ability to be the best pole-vaulter in the world. I thought that ever since I was a little kid.

The thing I really loved about golf was that when you're on the golf course, nothing in the world matters other than your next shot.

You have to go up there and jump high and clear whatever the bar may be. It's a competition within myself. That's how it was even before I was the best in the world, because that's the approach to every competition.

I try not to worry about anything, it's me and the bar, and it's just a competition between me and the bar.

The only competition against other people is basically just on the scorecard. The only thing I can control is myself.

To put pole vaulting on the map just for a second is a dream come true.

14, 15 16 - those were my little awkward ages. I was still short.

I'm gonna try and take pole vaulting as high as I can. I want it to be as popular as it can be.

When I was younger, pole vaulting was all that I knew. It was mainstream. It was so accessible to me and I was able to do it so much and so often. I've been surrounded by it since I was a little kid, like someone playing basketball.

Where my mom comes from, you can't have that big of a personality or be cocky or think you're better than anyone else. My dad grew up in New Orleans. It's a little bit different.

It's the hugest platform of athletics and I dream of a world record at the Olympics. One jump can change a lot of things in someone's life.

I know I can come away with the win whatever the competition. Second place in any competition is disappointing.