Record height cleared6.26 m
348 trillionthsLight-minutes
1.6 hundredthsSupertankers
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Pole Vault World Record
Armand Duplantis clearing 6.26 meters of pure gravity defiance/Sports
Swedish athlete Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis has pushed the pole vault world record to 6.26 meters, achieved in April 2025. To clear this height, he sprints at nearly 10 m/s while carrying a 5-meter carbon fiber pole, plants it in a box, and converts his horizontal speed into vertical flight. For context, 6.26 meters is higher than a standard two-story building. The physics involved would make a catapult jealous.
Measurements
Approach speed9.8 m/s
7Swimming humans
2.2 tenthsSneeze velocities
About 35 km/h at takeoff
Pole length5.15 m
2.42Christmas trees
107 millionthsBahrain lengths
Kinetic energy at takeoff3,840 J
15.4Bowling strikes
192 septillionMicrowave photons
38.4 billionFalling snowflakes
Converted to potential energy at the top
Athlete mass80 kg
16Human heads
1.7 tenthsConcert grand pianos
35.2Bags of flour
Time from plant to clearance1.1 s
88.5 millionthsLOTR extended editions
333 sextillionTime light crosses a proton
494 trillionthsQueen Elizabeth II reigns
The entire vault takes just over a second