For Olympics fans, watching pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis fly his way to gold—and a world record—was one of the biggest thrills of the 2024 games. But that six-second moment came with endless hours of training that honed very specific attributes: speed, strength, and "a kind of controlled fearlessness," says his father and coach, former Olympian Greg Duplantis.
"That third one is kind of, you either have it or you don't, although you can work on controlling it," Greg, just back from Paris, tells Fortune. "Some pole vaulters are a little bit too daring, and they go over the edge and hurt themselves doing risky activities … Mondo is not like that. But he's very, very fearless."
