re: Tiger's at the Olympics - Record Performance

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Only Mondo Duplantis makes me sad. He is born and raised in Lafayette, LA of a Swedish mother and a American father. He goes to LSU and gets trained and then competes for Sweden! Why Mondo? Why!.

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He competed internationally for Sweden as did his older sister and one older brother before he ever went to LSU.

https://espn1420.com/the-real-reasons-why-lafayette-louisiana-native-mondo-duplantis-competes-for-sweden/


The starter for this was

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By competing for Sweden, Duplantis was able to start competing in pole vaulting at a younger age. Sweden does not have the same age restrictions on competing at the highest levels of the sport. The United States does.

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The following also play into it.

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As it pertains to the Olympics, Sweden selects their Olympians on the totality of their performance over several years, rather than an all-or-nothing Olympic trial.

It's more lucrative financially. Pole vaulting is popular in Sweden. It is not a mainstream sport in the United States. Mondo Duplantis is a national superstar in Sweden, viewed with the same regard by Swedes as the country's best soccer players. He was the 2020 World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year and is estimated to be worth millions.

Sweden offered to let Mondo's father Greg Duplantis, a former world-class pole vaulter himself, coach him on the Swedish team. The same offer was not made by the U.S. team. Mondo is still coached today by his father Greg, and mother Helena.

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here is another tidbit as to why maybe he doesn't drop Sweden who has supported his efforts at least as much as the US has.

From Wikipedia (I know but it's easy)

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After winning the Jerringpriset as the most popular athlete in Sweden in 2020, Duplantis expressed relief that the Swedish public had accepted and embraced him.[12][13][14] During said Olympics, Duplantis also stated that his older brother having great experiences representing Sweden at a youth level and his love for Sweden as a child made his choice very easy but that he also feels a strong bond to Lafayette.[14] Duplantis usually divides his year between winters in Louisiana and summers in Uppsala in Sweden, adapted for when the two climates offer the best possibilities for training. With Duplantis' mother Helena being raised in Avesta, the municipality raised a pole vault bar beside the gigantic Dala horse monument to showcase the height of his world record, something that made Duplantis "break down in tears" over the significance of what he had accomplished when he heard about

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