Eugene. Mundo Duplantis is ready for the World Cup.
At his side, he has coaches, parents Helena and Greg and cohabitants Desiree who just joined from Sweden.
– It’s good to have “Dess” with me, you need a balance in the competition, says Mundo.
– I mostly try to be calm and show I’m not nervous, she says.
The entire Swedish team lives in the corridor of a house at the University of Oregon before the World Cup. But the team’s biggest star entered a hotel that the shoe sponsor had paid for, a stone’s throw away.
– I was a little hesitant at first because I didn’t want to leave the team but Kagsa (Bergqvist) thought it was a good idea. And while the situation here evolves, it’s smart not to have around 1,000 athletes here, he says.
He lives in the hotel with his partner Desiré Inglander, who traveled to the US just in time for Duplantis to join World Cup City from his childhood home in Lafayette.
“You should be calm”
– It’s nice to have “Dis” with me. Sometimes you need to balance everything. It’s not a good feeling at the World Cup to be locked in a room and not be able to do anything and be nervous to compete. With “Dess”, mom and dad here, it’s going to be a regular competition. He says I can hang out with them and have dinner, then the next day I pole-jump as usual.
Desiré, a fashion model on a daily basis, travels with Mondo in Galas throughout Europe. She says she is amazed at how little pressure her partner has.
For me, the whole world is very new, but to see that a person can be very calm with the pressure that he puts on him means that I have to be calm. “If everything is under control, how can I not have it?” she says.
are you tense
– I’m nervous but I think in a good way. I’m excited. I think it is.
Doesn’t show any tension, maybe a little tense in a good way to be extra highlighted. The only thing you feel is the last day before the competition, then he is more eager to sleep and eat properly. Then just keep going.
‘It’s not hard to deal with’
What do you do before and between competitions?
– I like to walk and look around so I do it if he needs a rest. Otherwise, we usually just eat and take it easy, just be. We check a little bit about other competitions etc.
He had a chaotic trip, is he calm now other than that?
– He’s always funny when it comes to travel. You always feel some pain in the body, but in fact he does not complain much. He rarely complains without being bitten.
– That way it’s not hard to deal with it aside, it is, she says.
For Desiré, her athletic skills extended to Usain Bolt when she met the “New Usain Bolt Athletics”.
– Haha yes, everything has become very new of course. But it is a wonderful world. Everyone has such talent, I can sit back and watch all the branches and wow. I think it’s very cool with 100 and 200 metres, and I don’t understand how you can be so fast.
“More interested in me”
Mondo says he’s noticed a growing interest.
– She has to learn. If she has to compete a lot, she should look into other disciplines. If you jump in a four-hour pole vault where I might do four jumps, you have to look at other things.
– I think she’s more interested in all the branches now… but mostly me and pole vaulting, haha.