- Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret dare behind his celebration
- Olympic Games superstar mimicked Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec
- He revealed that Aussie jumper Kurtis Marschall dared him to do so
Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret inspiration behind his iconic Turkish shooter celebration at the Olympic Games.
The Swede, 24, made headlines all over the world on Monday night after elevating himself higher than any man before him to set a new world record in the Stade de France.
His insane effort in clearing 6.25m onset bedlam among the 70,000 fans and Duplantis was admittedly elated by his achievement, running to embrace his model girlfriend Desiré Inglander with a passionate kiss.
But before that, another celebration went viral after he first broke the Olympic record of 6.10m.
The Swede mimicked Turkish shooting silver medallist Yusuf Dikec, whose laidback style saw him break the internet earlier at the Games.
Putting one hand in his pocket and making a gun sign with the other outstretched arm, the world knew immediately who Duplantis was imitating and were left in stitches.
The 24-year-old has since revealed the secret dare that saw him pull off the celebration.
‘It kind of just happened I guess,’ he said.
Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret behind his iconic celebration in Paris
The Swede made headlines after kissing his model girlfriend after his victory
But he said that he was dared by an Aussie jumper to mimic the Turkish shooter
‘Kurtis Marschall, the Australian jumper, I guess he sort of dared me to do it. He was like, ‘Bro, do that Turkish shooter celebration’. And I was like, Yeah, sure’. It sounded pretty cool to. It thought it was a cool meme. He seems like a pretty cool ‘G’ so I l kind of just did it.
‘I thought it was more just a funny thing. It was just in the moment, trying to do something funny and cocky.’
The pole vault star has now added a second Olympic crown to his long list of achievements, which already included two world championship golds and three European titles.
‘I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,’ he said afterwards. ‘It´s one of those things that doesn’t really feel real, such an out of body experience.
He added: ‘The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics.
‘And I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I´ve ever competed in front of.
‘I felt really prepared. I’ve never been so locked in my life than in these past three months. Now I´m just ready to eat a bunch of food. The party is going to be pretty big.’