Well, folks, just when you thought Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis couldn’t fly any higher, he’s gone and done it again.
This time, it’s not just about a pole vault record—though he did break his own, setting a new bar at a mind-boggling 6.26 meters in Poland. No, this time, it’s about letting the world in on his extraordinary journey through the lens of Born to Fly, now available on Red Bull TV.
Now, if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to become the greatest pole vaulter of all time, Born to Fly is your backstage pass to the mind, the method, and the madness of Duplantis.
The documentary doesn’t just show you the shiny medals and record-smashing jumps; it takes you all the way back to a little backyard in Louisiana, where a young Mondo first began dreaming of Olympic glory.
“It’s crazy. I can remember so many times being in my parents’ backyard and visualizing that bar being at the world record, and it’s the Olympic final. I think that specific moment, I’d visualized it thousands of times,” Duplantis muses, as he reflects on his childhood daydreams—daydreams that have become a reality in the most spectacular fashion.
The film doesn’t just stop at the highlight reel moments; it dives into the nitty-gritty of what made this young man from Louisiana the pole vaulting phenom we know today.
We’re talking about a family steeped in athletics—his father, Greg, was a pole vaulter who narrowly missed making the U.S. Olympic team, while his mother, Helena, was a talented Swedish heptathlete who moved to the United States on a track and field scholarship, where she met Greg. With genes like that, it’s no wonder Mondo’s flying high—literally and figuratively.
And yes, for those keeping track, he competes for Sweden thanks to his mother’s nationality.
But let’s not pretend it was all smooth sailing—or smooth vaulting, as it were. The documentary gets real about the struggles Mondo faced early on, like when he tried his hand at college for a year before deciding that pole vaulting was his true calling.
And who can blame him? After being beaten at the World Championship, Mondo did what any self-respecting athlete would do—he went back to his roots, literally, training with his dad in the same backyard where it all began.
That renewed focus paid off in spades, culminating in his gold-medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics.
Originally, Born to Fly took flight in Swedish theatres in October 2022, but now, as of August 26, 2024, it’s soaring onto screens worldwide via Red Bull TV.
This is your chance to see the blood, sweat, and sheer determination behind every record-breaking vault.
And if that’s not enough Mondo for you, earlier this year saw the release of The Next Centimeter, a short film that pulls back the curtain on the seven world records he set leading up to Paris 2024.
In it, York-Peter Kloeppel, the Head of Mental Performance at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre, delivers a bit of wisdom that cuts right to the core of what makes Mondo tick: “People think that someone was just born with the ability to be an outstanding swimmer, long-distance runner, or pole vaulter.
Actually, what talent really is, is just this relentless drive to keep improving, to keep becoming a better version of myself, and to me, that’s what talent is.
If you don’t have that type of internal drive, you’re just not going to beat some of the world’s greatest.”
So, if you’re ready to see what it really takes to fly higher than anyone else on the planet, grab some popcorn and tune into Born to Fly.
It’s not just a documentary—it’s the story of how one man turned his childhood dreams into a reality that’s rewritten the record books.