Swedish Pole Vaulter Leaps Into The Future

It’s not often the future is caught on camera but this Swedish Pole Vaulter has been filmed demonstrating a sporting update we all want to see more of.

Vivid Vaulting Vid

• Swede Armand Duplantis
• 16 year old shows future
• IAAF needs new schtick

If you like to bet on sports in Sweden you may not have consider a wager on the Pole Vault, but that could well be about to change as Angelica Bengtsson marches towards Rio’s 2016 Olympics, with every chance of a medal at the end of her efforts. She’ll be worth a punt at ComeOn! Sportsbook come the games this summer (if the Zika Virus hasn’t rendered the entirety of Brazil an off-limits “hot-zone”) but footage that came to light recently seems to warn that perhaps the days of traditional pole vaulting are over.

The young Swedish Pole Vaulter in the video is called Armand Duplantis, and whilst the height he clears isn’t all that great (certainly not as great as all the records the 16 year old holds for all ages groups 7 to 12) the potential of what he’s doing is obvious to even the most disinterested observer and I for one will now be gambling news of this twist on the customary pole vault event joining numerous other ‘updated’ sports in the pantheon of Olympic competition one day is no more than a decade off.

Whilst at one time that might have been considered a laughable idea the current sports doping scandal that is laying waste to the reputation of athletics (and rightfully so) is likely to place the sport in the market for some attractions to win back a disillusioned audience, and this young Swedish pole vaulter may well have hit upon one such eye-catching effort. Perhaps in 2030 people will be taken advantage of Swedish gambling laws to back the nations hover-board-vaulters in the Summer Olympics, eh?

Armand may have used a hover-board but if you can think of any modern updates to any of the old favorites from the world of athletics do let us know in the comments section below, the IAAF is going to need all the help it can get! We’ll pass on the best ones to Seb Coe later this year.