“I hate that we lost him to Sweden, I wish we could get him back to American one of these days,” Kendricks says, half-jokingly, about Duplantis, who grew partially in Louisiana and part-time in Sweden, as a dual citizen.
It seemed like ages prior to his records – his Olympic record on his first attempt, and the world record on number three – that Duplantis locked up his second consecutive Olympic gold medal, after Kendricks bid adieu to the three-hour competition following three unsuccessful attempts at 6.00m.
An Improvement from Rio 2016 And Redemption After Tokyo
2020
For the 31-year-old American from Oxford, Mississippi, his silver medal comes eight years after he won his first Olympic medal – a bronze medal at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
“At the end of the day, I’m on the track, I’m bleeding, and the end of the story is Mondo set the world record, but I snared myself a silver medal along the way,” Kendricks said, showing his hand to reporters, while referring to spiking his hand on his first 6.00m attempt.
Kendricks’ stellar performance is redemption, coming three years after he was sent into quarantine after a positive COVID-19 test at Tokyo 2020, forcing the six-time U.S. national champion to miss the Olympic pole vault…
