Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis, the undisputed pole vault champion for the past three years, will start his outdoor season at the Xiamen Diamond League on Saturday "with Paris 2024 in mind".

The Swedish-born American has seven world records to his name and in an interview with AFP, Duplantis warned potential rivals that with the Olympics less than 100 days away, now is the time to aim high. "It's time to be in very good shape for Paris," he said.

Duplantis won the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow earlier this year, his second indoor title. He will be looking to repeat the feat outdoors. His medal haul includes Olympic gold in Tokyo, two outdoor world titles and two European gold medals. A third European title, in Rome in June, is also firmly on his radar.

"The Euros are really big and they come before the Olympics," he said. "So it's something I'm really focusing on when it comes around. It's another title you want to add to your collection." 

Duplantis is a special and unusual athlete in the world of athletics. He achieves victories when other competitors cannot keep up. First he beats his opponents, then he concentrates on setting another world record. "He said: "All in all, you get used to it. 

His dominance and surpassing is reminiscent of the legendary jumper Sergei Bubka. He set 35 world records. "I expect that from myself and I expect to try more records in most competitions or in competitions where the conditions are good and everything is set up and ready to try such heights."

Duplantis added: "I just try to get the best out of myself in every competition. "I hope it ends up being a world record attempt or a record. I want it as much as anybody else. So I think that overrides any pressure."

He holds the world record of 6.23 metres and, despite his dominance, he insists he is always motivated. "It's been like that since I started. I'm just trying to get the best out of myself and I'm just competing against myself, against the bar... against the people inside you, just on paper, really. So every day I go out there and I jump and I try to get the best out of myself.

Duplantis himself pointed out that there is always a bar that cannot be crossed. "That's what sets the goal is, but you should always aim to cross one and then another. Duplantis is unique, according to jumper Renaud Lavillenie, who won Olympic gold in 2012, silver in 2016 and was the Diamond League pole vault champion for an unprecedented seven consecutive years. "It's impossible to reach him at the moment. He's above everyone in many ways," the 37-year-old Frenchman told AFP.

"However Mondo seems to have made it his own. At the moment he's the only athlete who can easily jump 6m, 6.05m or 6.10m, much higher than the others. It's a real advantage to win everything," Lavillenie added.

In Xiamen, Duplantis will be one of the 12 Olympic gold medallists competing at the Egret Stadium. The level of competition will be high as the Swede will lead a group of four men who have cleared 6.00m, along with the American duo of Christopher Nilsen and Sam Kendricks and Norway's Sondre Guttormsen.