SLS 20RS-707 ORIGINAL
2020 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 37
BY SENATOR CORTEZ
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Armand "Mondo" Duplantis former Louisiana State
University track athlete on setting new world indoor records for the pole vault.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To commend Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, a former member of the track and field team at
3 Louisiana State University (LSU), on breaking the world indoor record in the pole
4 vault in successive international track and field competitions.
5 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis, a Lafayette, Louisiana, native and former LSU
6 athlete, represents his mother's native country of Sweden in international competition since
7 he maintains dual citizenship, and he is the reigning European champion; and
8 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis broke the world indoor record in the pole vault, which
9 had stood since 2014, with a vault of 20.14 feet (6.17 meters) on February 8, 2020, at the
10 World Athletics Indoor Tour in Torun', Poland; and
11 WHEREAS, merely one week later, at the Indoor Grand Prix meet in Glasgow,
12 Scotland, on February 15, 2020, Mondo Duplantis vaulted beyond the world record height
13 again to clear 20.28 feet (6.18 meters) breaking his own record by a centimeter; and
14 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis, referred to in The New York Times as "the Tiger
15 Woods of pole vaulting", is clearly in excellent form to compete for a gold medal at the 2020
16 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, later this year; and
17 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis had set as a goal being the world record holder in the
18 pole vault going into the Olympic games this summer, and he accomplished that by setting
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SLS 20RS-707 ORIGINAL
1 these consecutive world record heights; and
2 WHEREAS, on his way to this world record, Mondo Duplantis garnered several titles
3 and records, including being named Track & Field High School Boys Athlete of the Year
4 in both 2017 and 2018, before moving on to LSU; and
5 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis, who set his first age group world best at age seven
6 and was a stellar athlete at LSU, appears to have a brilliant career ahead of him,
7 internationally; and
8 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis broke both records at indoor meets and told the
9 British Broadcasting Company (BBC), "I'm excited for the outdoor season"; and
10 WHEREAS, with back-to-back record-setting victories, Mondo Duplantis appears
11 poised to rise to the pinnacle of his sport of pole vaulting with an Olympic gold medal to
12 accompany his world records and to take his LSU and Louisiana fans along with him in that
13 quest for continued world pole vault dominance; and
14 WHEREAS, as the youngest child of LSU track and field stars, Greg and Helena
15 Hudlund Duplantis, a pole vaulter and a heptathlete and volleyball player, respectively, who
16 met while attending LSU, Mondo was destined to have both an interest in sports and some
17 innate athletic ability; and
18 WHEREAS, his parents say that Mondo Duplantis first tried pole vaulting as a
19 three-year-old at home, set his first age group world best at seven, and as of July 2015, he
20 held the world best height in all age groups from age seven to age twelve; and
21 WHEREAS, Mondo is coached by his father and the family has a pole vaulting pit
22 in the back yard of their home in Lafayette; and
23 WHEREAS, one could say that athletic competition is the family "business", with
24 his older brothers, Andreas, a pole vaulter, and Antoine, a baseball player (who became LSU
25 baseball's all-time hits leader last season) who attended LSU on athletic scholarships and
26 Antoine is currently signed with the New York Mets of Major League Baseball; and
27 WHEREAS, in competition in 2019, Mondo Duplantis, a seven-time Louisiana pole
28 vault champion, became the World Silver Medalist, the National Collegiate Athletic
29 Association Indoor Champion (NCAA), and the record holder at 19 feet 5 inches, the
30 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Field Athlete of the Year, both indoor and outdoor, the SEC
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1 Indoor Freshman Athlete of the Year, and in 2018 he was the European Champion and the
2 Under-Twenty World Champion, and is a widely-recognized prodigious talent in
3 international pole vault competition; and
4 WHEREAS, Mondo Duplantis is the collegiate indoor and outdoor record holder, he
5 holds two of the top three jumps in outdoor collegiate pole vault history, and four of the top
6 marks in collegiate history indoors, achieving a remarkably consistent record of excellence;
7 and
8 WHEREAS, these are but a few of the countless honors that Mondo Duplantis has
9 garnered in his still-young career, but his lengthy competitive history indicates that he will
10 be ready to compete for what he sees as the ultimate prize, an Olympic Gold Medal this
11 summer; and
12 WHEREAS, through his long and extremely successful career as a pole vaulter,
13 Mondo Duplantis, 2019 Southeastern Conference Male Rookie of the Year in Track & Field,
14 is focused on his athletic career, and is also a pleasant and personable young man, a world
15 champion, and likely to continue his athletic success on the international level for several
16 years to come.
17 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
18 commend Armand "Mondo" Duplantis on breaking the world indoor record in the pole vault
19 in successive international track and field competitions.
20 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
21 Armand Duplantis.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SCR 37 Original 2020 Regular Session Cortez
Commends Armand "Mondo" Duplantis on breaking the world indoor record in the pole
vault in successive international track and field competitions.
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