We speak to the Swede who stepped in to help her son, Mondo, at high school and has been a key component in his rise to success on the global stage in the pole vault
Helena Duplantis grew up with athletics. Her father was the head of her local club in Sweden and competed in pole vault until the age of 80. There are pictures of her as a three-year-old playing in the long jump pit.
After competing in her first track meeting at the age of six, she developed into an all-round talent, representing her country in the hepathlon. A scholarship to Louisiana State University (LSU) took her to the USA in 1985, where she met her husband Greg, also a pole vaulter.
They have four children who were all encouraged to be involved in sport but it is their son, Mondo, who has risen to global prominence, seemingly making it his mission to create pole vault history at every turn.
The serial world record-breaker, also the reigning Olympic, world and European champion, is coached by his parents, who also work with Belgian former European under-23 champion Ben Broeders. Greg looks after pole vault specific elements while Helena focuses on strength and conditioning. It is a recipe that certainly works.
Who were your first coaching influences?
I started running track when I was really young. My dad was my coach and then I moved because he felt like he didn’t have the experience to coach me to the next level.
I got a coach in a different town and one more after that before I went to LSU.
When I got there, I worked with the coaches that were on staff there – people like Loren Seagrave and Dan Pfaff.
Helena and Mondo Duplantis (Getty)
How did your own coaching journey start?
I really didn’t think a lot about track as far as being part of coaching, I was just busy with being a soccer mom, a baseball mom and then it wasn’t until Mondo started high school that I felt like there was a need for something, if that’s what he wanted to do. I felt he needed some more guidance from his coaches.
The system in the United States is so different. Everything is school-based. I was used to the track clubs in Sweden, where you pretty much have the freedom to search for the best coach to fit you, but here you are still confined to what they have available at school.
After his first international meet, when he won the World Youth Championships in Cali 2015, I really felt that Mondo was extremely talented. That was when he started high school, at 15. He quit all the other sports because his older…
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