Mondo is a bigger superstar than Jakob despite Jakob holding the WR in multiple events in a more popular sport (running). Yet all my friends and family know who Mondo is, but no one knows who Jakob is.
Pole vaulting is a niche sport. Yet Mondo has 2x as many instagram followers as Jakob.
So, why the F*CK is Mondo a bigger superstar than Jakob?
A casual person turns on the TV. They can watch the pole vault easily because the event takes 10 seconds. They are impressed.
They see a bunch of people running in a 1500m or 5000m and have no idea how much longer the race will go on for. They are changing the channel before they find out who won.
The pole vault is probably a more viewer friendly event to the casual sports fan.
Casuals can understand that a 6.26m vault is really hard because they can't even do a vault of any height.
Casuals have no frame of reference for how good a 7:17 3k is, even your parkrunners will have to do some mental maths to get an idea of how much better Jakob is than their local P1 weekend warrior. On top of this 3000m is not a long distance and it "looks" like Jakob is just jogging, despite 99% of people not being able to hang with him for one lap.
It's the same reason why they are more impressed with a 4 hour marathon (something casuals can't complete) but don't care as much about your 15 minute 5k (something casuals can complete).
I wonder though who is most marketable from a strictly commercial standpoint. I mean, both are seemingly good looking and charismatic guys. People seem to have a more love/hate relationship with Jakob as Mondo really doesn't have any competition.
Mondo is American and should theoretically appeal to more people (but that might be a two sided blade). But pole vaulting is a small sport compared to running in terms of active athletes. And the market for vaulting poles is next to nothing compared to running shoes. But if you want to sell, e.g. a car or any other non sporting related stuff I think Mondo is more marketable for a world wide audience.
Mondo is a bigger superstar than Jakob despite Jakob holding the WR in multiple events in a more popular sport (running). Yet all my friends and family know who Mondo is, but no one knows who Jakob is.
Pole vaulting is a niche sport. Yet Mondo has 2x as many instagram followers as Jakob.
So, why the F*CK is Mondo a bigger superstar than Jakob?
Like Jakob cares. He has a hot wife and a kid (and more on the way). That's worth more than "instagram followers"
What's likeable about him? He's jerking off every meet pretending that it's hard for him to break the WR when everybody knows that he has jumped 10cm higher in practice. The guy is a fraud.
What's likeable about him? He's jerking off every meet pretending that it's hard for him to break the WR when everybody knows that he has jumped 10cm higher in practice. The guy is a fraud.
He would be an idiot to waste the potential WR bonuses.
He would be an idiot to waste the potential WR bonuses.
Sure, it's not the "one centimeter at a time" that I don't like. It's all the roleplaying that goes along with it. Guy is sandbagging to get rich - fine - but don't act like that is NOT what you're doing.
Mondo grew up in America and competes for Sweden, so he's got a larger pool of potential fans than Jakob. He makes headlines every time he breaks a WR. Pole vault is visually shocking to casual fans and looks way cooler on Instagram than a guy on a track. He's got a cool name. He's jacked. All stuff conducive to getting a bunch of Instagram followers.
I actually think if he went by Armand, he'd be a bit less famous. Mondo is a great name for a guy who flies in the air.
(woman here) Both are goodlooking guys, but Mondo has more of that movie star quality and a lot of girls/women have a crush on him. His expressions, his physique, the way he grabs his girlfriend and passionately kisses her on live tv. He is sexy and yet approachable at the same time. He is an ideal 'imaginary boyfriend', fitting the 'cute jock who wears his heart on his sleeve and loooves his girlfriend' trope a la High School Musical.
There's a reason that the young girl at the Silesia press conference wanted Mondo's bib and gave him a drawing she made of him lol. Jakob was sitting next to him at the time and thought it was funny btw, haha.
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