Stop Mondo from nickel and diming the WR

Why? That would take all of those exciting opportunities away from the world.

This will happen when contractual bonuses pay out proportionally to how much you break a WR by. Unfortunately that part will never happen, because Nike/Addidas/Etc get more attention from "X breaks Y world record again!" being in the news 20 times, than one monstrous WR being talked about once.

It is an unfortunately downside of High Jump/Pole Vault.

Because they aren't exciting if we all already know he can do it.

Well duh. Everyone here agrees with that and we'd all do the same thing in Mondo's shoes. We're all just saying it's a shame that that's the system and we can't see what Mondo can actually do.

Can anyone imagine another athlete who can maintain this level of dominance over this many years?( obviously Bubka was the last one who did).

I don’t get the complaining. Enjoy the fact that this man is able to do what he is doing.

He was given every possible gift: high level support from day one, all the physical gifts, a seemingly perfect attitude, and so far indestructible body. He was given every gift and has not squandered any of it.

Millions of people were excited when he broke the record. Did tpu even watch?

Who was so excited? The majority of people I know that are even passive fans of track don't take his WRs seriously because they know about the schtick

Agreed he is brilliant.

And why a company ever write a clause like this? The benefit from the repeated records, just as he does. Duh.

Every instance of Mondo breaking a WR and celebrating is making him relevant in the mainstream news (at least in Europe) and raising his profile. This is exactly what they want and his WR bonuses while great for a T&F athlete are trivial amounts to them.

The only guy who can complain is the guy from Avesta that needs to get out his ladder, climb up, and raise the sign a centimeter every few months.

Image:upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...

Did you watch? You can say things thst aren't tru if it makes you feel good.

Here is the thing many people do not seem to realize. More often than not, he FAILS to set a world record. That's because it is very hard. Being hard to do is kind of a world record thing. The fact that he can break his world record as often as he does is amazing and to attack him for not breaking it by a larger margin is just ridiculous.

Yes he makes lots of money breaking world records so he has a motive not to overdue how high but he works very hard to do it and more often than not he fails.

Very cool! Thanks for posting this.

Okay here's what I'm on about. Didn't someone else post pics of him showing off a pair of Puma shoes? Who's his sponsor?

This thread isn't even sure who his sponsor is, after all these years of WR showboating. They're not getting their money's worth, in any real world advertising terms; it's just overall worth it to them, apparently, to hold on to this niche brand awareness. Kind of like most NCAA football teams, which lose a ton of money for the school but raise its overall image.

Is this thread for real? He cleared 6.30 on his third attempt scraping the bar. He would not have cleared 6.31 with that jump.

Could it possibly be that he's only 25, and he's actually getting better with time, and that's why he's able to keep setting new records?

This isn’t nearly as offensive as runners running “tactical races” and refusing to give a good faith effort.

He’s still vaulting higher than anyone ever has before. He has the right, and it draws attention to the sport.

100%, I remember that!

Does it? Why assume this?

Maybe it gets 30 seconds of mention on a mainstream sports highlight reel. Does the mainstream viewer start watching track meets as a result? I say no. The sport remains as niche as ever. These WRs don't move the needle one bit, and never have, exception maybe Usain Bolt but that's about it.

One could even say WR promotion is a desperate part of the sport's death spiral, a last ditch PR campaign to prove it has some life left.

Certainly it doesn't sell shoes for Puma. And so, on the off chance that this thread catches Puma's eye, here's the gauntlet: as a continuing track shoes customer, I am boycotting all Puma products as long as they support this unsportsmanlike behavior by their sponsored athlete. Renegotiate the contract, do what you must, Puma, but this sort of advertising turns me off. And I have bought Puma spikes in the past, so this is no idle boycott.

Completely different situation. If Usain Bolt had targeted 9.55 and run 9.57, he would still have set the world record. If Mondo targets 6.35 and misses, he gets nothing.

Put it another way, imagine if runners had to state before the race how fast they wanted to run. If they fail to beat that time, they lose. If they beat that time, they aren't credited with the time they ran, they are credited with the time they said before the race?

What do you think the 100m WR would be? The mile?

If we imagine that in the future the bar is changed to a bunch of lasers light a garage door safety switch, so that we can measure the exact height an athlete clears, then you'll see different results. Until we get that completely different sport, the only intelligent thing to do is break the WR by the smallest amount possible.

1. OP is greatly underestimating how difficult the pole vault is. Even with Mondo, it's never automatic.

2. It's also the nature of the pole vault that you raise the bar in increments, and Mondo is just following the same rules as everyone else. There's no event in track and field where you create punitive rules to handicap the best athletes. You might as well say that after he set the WR in the 100m, Usain Bolt should have been forced to wear a 10 lb backpack, or Sydney has to go over taller hurdles than everyone else.

3. Enjoy Mondo while his career lasts. Odds are against seeing anyone else that good at PV in your lifetime.