Why Mondo Duplantis only improves his world record 1cm at a time despite proving he can go even higher

Sweden's Mondo Duplantis has added to his incredible legacy by setting another world record in the men's pole vault on Friday night.

Duplantis achieved his very first world record at the age of 20, beating the previous effort from Renaud Lavillenie as he reached a height of 6.17m in February 2020.

But that was just the start of an unprecedented dominant run in the event for Duplantis, who has now broken the world record for the 11th time in his decorated career.

The Olympic and world champion pole vaulter was at the All Star Perche event in Clermont-Ferrand, France to set a new record.

After improving his mark three times in 2024, including at the Olympics in Paris, Duplantis has gone a step further by improving his record to an incredible 6.27m at the first attempt in the indoor event.

His heroics sparked wild scenes from the fans in attendance, with pyrotechnics going off as Duplantis celebrated with his family and friends.

It follows up his successful world record attempt of 6.26m set in Poland back in August.

Why Duplantis only improves his world record by a centimetre

No-one has ever broke world record consistently with such ease like Duplantis and you would put money on him doing the same in the future. But why does he improve his record 1cm at a time when he is capable of going higher?

It turns out that while Duplantis could potentially attempt an even greater world record height, athletes receive a $100,000 bonus each time they break the world record and that lucrative incentive is a key reason in steadily increasing the height.

As reported by Forbes, the caveat is that you only get it one time at the meet you broke it at.

Therefore, if Duplantis broke the record twice at the meet, he would still only receive $100,000 instead of a $200,000 payment.

"An athlete such as Duplantis who recognizes this understands that they can maximize their financial return by waiting to break the world record again," the report states.

Having reached from 6.17m to his current world record since usurping Lavillenie in 2020, the two-time Olympic gold medallist will likely go for 6.28m as his next challenge but also has the chance to claims hat-tricks of gold medals at both the indoor and outdoor world championships this year.