Five days after winning his fourth consecutive European title, Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis has claimed ‘gold’ again. But without a pole in sight.The 26-year-old two-time Olympic and three-time world champion has dropped a new song, ‘Gold’ — a fitting title for an athlete who picked up his 12th competition gold at the European Athletics Championship in Birmingham, England, by jumping 6.15m last weekend — beating his own championship record from 2024 by 5 centimeters.Now the American-born Swede is looking to break into the top of the streaming charts with a pop track that is the official anthem of the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, which will be held in Budapest, Hungary, next month. And Duplantis, who will be competing for more gold, will perform the song live to close out the championship on September 13.These new championships are an effort to modernize track and field by World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, whose tenure finishes next year. The format showcases three evenings of events and is deliberately made for the top athletes, as qualification can only be achieved by winning an outdoor world or Olympic gold, a Diamond League final, or via a top world-ranking position. Duplantis, fittingly, could qualify by any of those means.The track events shorter than and including 800m will only feature a semi-final and final, rather than the typical three rounds. The 1500m, 5,000m, relays and field events — including Duplantis’ pole vault — are straight finals. Coe is designing the event for broadcast and social media coverage, rolling out the red carpet for the pre-event press conference. The announcement that Duplantis was creating the anthem for the inaugural event was made back in March, the day after the Swede won world indoor gold in Torun, Poland, and the video itself was shot in July.The lyrics to the song were written by the pole vaulter, along with musical artist and producer Carl Silvergran and the song’s producer Oscar Chase. Since first unveiling the song ‘Bop’ in February 2025, Duplantis, who trains between Stockholm and Louisiana, where he was born, has released six more records.‘Gold’ is set to receive the most prominence, since it mixes his profession and passion.“I wrote the song around representing something that’s a lot bigger than yourself,” Duplantis said. “That’s what we all do when we’re on the track. We represent our family, our team, our coaches, and I love that concept. Music and sports are the two things that bring people together in the best way, and Gold is an expression of that.”It is certainly an expression of something. And while some fans are loving the lyrics and what is a catchy beat, others have been less kind, telling Duplantis to stick to pole vaulting.Whether you like the song or not, it is another brave stride from a man whose job it is to be very good at taking them. Athletes should be allowed to creatively express themselves away from their respective sports and this is how Duplantis, a true superstar of his sport, is choosing to do that.He once featured in a music video for the song Chasing Paradise by Kygo and OneRepublic alongside his now-wife, Desiré Inglander. Kygo, a Norwegian DJ, has recently reworked a track that Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland recorded with his friends as teenagers and uploaded online.Kygo remixed and released ‘Kygo Jo’ during the World Cup as a promise to his compatriot Haaland, whose fame reached a new level during the World Cup.It was Haaland’s down-to-earth YouTube vlog entries that offered people insight into the person behind the all-conquering athlete. Coupled with his actions on the pitch, Haaland’s cut-through to a wider audience in North America was huge, proving there is plenty of success to be had for athletes willing to show different sides of themselves.For Duplantis, it looks like no expense was spared for his own YouTube music video, which features footage of Duplantis training as a child and clips of other athletes from the world of track and field.Drone footage filmed above the landmarks of Budapest shows Duplantis singing his heart out to the song (which is, unfortunately, not a cover of the 1983 hit of the same name by British group Spandau Ballet, as I hoped it might be).After winning in Birmingham, Duplantis, who has more than 190,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 11 million total streams across his seven songs, said: “I just want to jump high, I love being out on the track and doing what I’m good at. I have this weird inner motivation (that) this is what I’m meant to do.”Pole vaulting is what Duplantis was put on the planet to do, as shown by the 15 times he has broken the world record.A Grammy gold for this musical side hustle feels a long way off, but that won’t stop Duplantis from trying to raise the bar.Additional contributor: Liam Tharme