Armand Duplantis(not related to Jesse) won. He was born and raised in Louisiana and graduated from LSU. His mother had come from Sweden to LSU for track because it meant more. JK. But because of that Sweden allowed him dual citizenship. He chose to compete for Finland and does spend time training and competing in Europe.
He had an interesting answer when asked why he chose to compete for Sweden. He said that because of the football culture track is ignored in the US except during the Olympics. While they have 50k at meets in Europe. And nobody at LSU meets or other US meets. He did bother to learn Swedish and is fluent.
He is pretty insightful and clearly would have been world champ for the US had he wanted. So he didn’t do it just to make an Olympic team. As an aside, his brother is/was one of LSU’s all time leading hitters in baseball.
He had an interesting answer when asked why he chose to compete for Sweden. He said that because of the football culture track is ignored in the US except during the Olympics. While they have 50k at meets in Europe. And nobody at LSU meets or other US meets. He did bother to learn Swedish and is fluent.
He is pretty insightful and clearly would have been world champ for the US had he wanted. So he didn’t do it just to make an Olympic team. As an aside, his brother is/was one of LSU’s all time leading hitters in baseball.
Last edited:
