There are plenty of Olympic sports where we find ourselves wondering 'how did they get into this?' – the luge, for example, or speed walking. But the pole vault is certainly up there. No pun intended.
The pole, the crossbar and indeed the leotard-wearing, gravity-defying humans have become the unlikely stars of this year's Paris Olympics. That's in no small part due to the Swedish Gold medal winner, Armand Duplantis, who made charging up to a 6.25m bar and hurling himself over with the help of a 10ft pole look like he was stepping over a wet floor sign. Yes, I had to Google 'how long is Armand Duplantis's pole' for the sake of this article.
To answer my own question, how did Armand Duplantis (known as Mondo) and the other pole vaulters get into this? And then realise they're so good at it that they might as well compete at the Olympics? Well, Armand comes from an athletic family. His father is a former pole vaulter and his mother is a former heptathlete and volleyball player. His two older brothers, Andreas and Antoine, and his younger sister, Johanna, are all athletic too. So he's got the right genes.
However, he also tried pole vaulting out for the first time when he was just three years old in his family garden in Louisiana. By the age of seven, he set the world best for his age group and by the age of ten, his jump of 3.86m surpassed the previous world records for 11- and 12-year olds as well. Now 24 years old, he's the current world outdoor and indoor record older, a two-time Olympic champion, two-time World outdoor champion, two-time indoor champion, the current European champion and the current Diamond League champion. So, yes, he's pretty good.
When he realised – very comfortably, we might add – that he had cleared the 6.25m mark and secured his gold medal, he calmly rolled off the mat, popped one hand in his shorts and made a gun with the other hand in a nod to Turkish Olympic shooter Yusuf Dikec who went viral for doing the same thing.
Which brings us neatly onto the other reason why pole vault has got so many people talking this year. French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati sent the internet into a frenzy when he failed to qualify for the final because his penis got caught on the 5.70m bar.
It's a video we can only recommend watching in slow motion. The now viral clip has proven to be a double-edged sword for the French star (again, no pun intended), because while his package lost him a place in the Olympic final, it has gained him a lot of attention. And 120,000 new Instagram followers.
Allow us to offer a few headlines to help paint the picture. The Metro said, 'Pole vaulter's Olympic dream shattered by his own penis'. The Daily Express wrote, 'Olympian who was denied a medal because of his penis told to "call a drag queen" for help'. And Gay Times posted, 'Anthony Ammirati speaks out after viral bulge mishap.'
It is certainly worth mentioning that the sport is not as effortless as the Olympic athletes make it seem. In fact, some of the competitors were unable to clear the bar at all.
There are plenty of clips doing the rounds on social media, which are less celebratory in nature, including one of Estonian decathlete Karel Tilga. His attempt went horribly wrong and he hung off the pole before he even reached the bar and ended up falling backwards onto his back.
Sharing the clip on X, one user wrote, 'I'm no expert but I don't think it's supposed to go like this.' Another said, 'Pole vault makes me SO nervous cus what if you drop or the lil pole thingy snaps in half and impales you?'
Thank you for the highs and lows, pole vault. Consider us converts.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, covering TV, celebrity interviews, news and features.