- Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret challenge behind his celebration
- Olympic superstar imitated Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec
- He revealed that Australian show jumper Kurtis Marschall challenged him to do this
Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret inspiration behind his iconic Turkish shooting celebration at the Olympics.
The 24-year-old Swede made headlines around the world on Monday night after he surpassed all other men before him by setting a new world record at the Stade de France.
His insane performance in bringing the chaos of 6.25 meters to the attention of the 70,000 fans clearly was a thorn in the side of Duplantis and he ran to his model girlfriend Desiré Inglander to give her a passionate kiss.
But before that, another party went viral after he broke the Olympic record of 6.10 meters for the first time.
The Swede imitated Turkish silver medalist Yusuf Dikec, who had already conquered the internet with his relaxed style earlier at the Games.
When he put one hand in his pocket and made a pistol gesture with the other outstretched arm, the world immediately knew who Duplantis was imitating and they burst out laughing.
The 24-year-old has now revealed the secret challenge that drove him to success.
“It just happened, I guess,” he said.
Armand Duplantis has revealed the secret behind his iconic Paris party
The Swede made headlines after kissing his model girlfriend following his victory
But he said he was challenged by an Australian jumper to emulate the Turkish shooter
“Kurtis Marshall, the Australian jumper, I think he challenged me to do it. He was like, ‘Bro, do the Turkish shooter celebration.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ It sounded pretty cool too. I thought it was a cool meme. He seems like a pretty cool ‘G,’ so I just did it.
“I thought it was more just something funny. It was just in the moment, trying to do something funny and cocky.”
The pole vault star has now added a second Olympic title to his long list of achievements, which already includes two World Championship golds and three European titles.
“I haven’t processed how amazing that moment was,” he said afterward. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t feel real, 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 did it in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever fought in front of.
“I felt really prepared. I’ve never been so cooped up in my life as I have been in the last three months. Now I’m just ready to eat a ton of food. The party’s going to be pretty big.”