New music, more world records and a winning streak continued: Mondo Duplantis heads into 2026 Diamond League season flying high

Just 10 days after he was walking the Met Gala red carpet alongside fiancee Desiré Inglander, two-time and reigning Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis will kick off his 2026 outdoor athletics stand across the globe.

The Swedish world record holder leads a stacked men's field at the Shanghai/Keqiao Diamond League stop, set for Saturday (16 May), and the first of 15 Diamond League events across the next four months.

And Duplantis - as usual - has plenty of momentum as he flies into another outdoor season.

In March, the 26-year-old became the first man to win four consecutive world indoor pole vault titles, just days after he had recorded a 15th world-record height at 6.31m (20 feet 7 inches) in front of home fans in Sweden at his very own event, the Mondo Classic.

Duplantis is undefeated - indoor and out - since 2023, a remarkable 39 victories in a row.

With the 2026 Diamond League an unofficial "halfway" point for athletics stars to the coming Olympic Games LA 2028 the bone-fide top dog in pole vaulting looks to be going from one height to the next... both in competition and out of it.

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Looking for a breakdown of that aforementioned stacked pole vault field for Shanghai? Keep scrolling down.

But Duplantis has continued to keep a jam-packed diary away from being the greatest pole vaulter of all time, too.

Days before he and Inglander posed for photographers at global fashion's biggest party in New York City, the Swede released his latest single, "Location".

Known musically as just "Mondo", it's a fifth single in a side-project that shows no signs of slowing down. He released "Feelin' Myself" in February, the track becoming his most successful yet, with some 3.3 million streams on Spotifty.

In March, World Athletics announced it had tasked Duplantis with composing the anthem for the inaugural staging of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, set for September.

Already a megastar in Sweden, Duplantis continues to go global with his profile, too. In late April he appeared on the cover of Esquire Spain, with the headline, "El hombre con la cabeza en las nubes" - "The man with his head in the clouds".

But who wouldn't want to be floating with Mondo?

The Swede himself would like to hang more with Carlos Alcaraz, the tennis champ, telling Esquire: "He's probably the coolest and more genuine person I've ever met."

Loaded pole vault field at Shanghai/Keqiao Diamond League

Duplantis will have to be at the top of his game in Shanghai come Saturday, with a 'who's who' field of men's pole vaulting joining him.

Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis will feature, a fellow 26-year-old who has become Duplantis' chief rival over the past year or so, finishing with silver at the last three global championships after winning bronze at Paris 2024.

Karalis moved to second on the all-time list in February with a 6.17m effort in front of home fans in Athens.

The Shanghai field also includes two-time world champ Sam Kendricks of the USA, two-time world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall of Australia as well as Sondre Guttormsen (NOR), Menno Vloon (NED) and France’s Thibaut Collet.

Duplantis is aware of the Karalis charge in particular, which will be on full display in Shanghai.

"He's a great competitor; he shows up really well when he needs to," he said in March at the World Indoors.

"He's definitely pushing himself to a whole other level - also now, clearly. It's really fun. I think it's really exciting for the sport.

Duplantis added: "It's better for me; it pushes me. And hopefully people can be more interested in pole vault, because that's the event that I love. And maybe the attention doesn't have to be on me."

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