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

Armand "Mondo" Duplantis made more history on Sunday after he beat his own world record by 1cm at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia.

Earlier this month, the 24-year-old Swede secured back-to-back Olympic gold medals on a memorable evening at the Stade de France.

The cool, calm and collected Duplantis breezed past Emmanouil Karalis and Sam Kendricks to first place after achieving a vault of 6.25 meters, beating his previous record by 1cm.

And three weeks later, the world outdoor and indoor record holder cleared a height of 6.26 meters to break his own world record for the third time this season.

Duplantis, who only took three vaults prior to raising the bar to a world record height, has now broken the world record 10 times in his career.

So why only 1cm when there remains a considerable amount of room between him and the bar?

Duplantis could attempt an even greater world record height but athletes receive a $100,000 bonus each time they break the world record, meaning it would be in his own interests to steadily increase the height.

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

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

"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 adds.

Image credit: Getty

Speaking after he broke another world record, Duplantis said: "My first world record also came in Poland, indoors in Torun, so I have great memories from here.

"The track here is wonderful, the conditions today were perfect, everything just came together to allow me to do this. I know a lot of people came here to see me jump, so I wanted to put in a good showing for them."

He was just as thrilled after securing an Olympic title earlier this month and even paid tribute to Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec after the win,

“What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter,” he said.

“The biggest dream since a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.”