New Delhi, May 8 -- In 2024, there were athletes, and then there was Mondo Duplantis.

To describe that season, words are hard to come by, and Duplantis himself mutters things like "weird" and "surreal".

But if there's one word that, casting aside superlatives, captures the essence of the 25-year-old Swedish-American pole vaulter's year-15 wins in 15 competitions, world champion, European Champion, Olympic champion, and three-time world record breaker-it's this: impossible.

Any athlete operating in the top tier would like to believe that they are chasing the impossible, that they are on a quest to turn dreams into reality.

Once in a generation, that really happens. Duplantis belongs, with consummate ease, in the same sphere as Usain Bo...