The Geaux Tigers connection runs deep for world champions Sha’Carri Richardson and Mondo Duplantis.

With the Olympic Games Paris 2024 just around the bend, the reigning track and field athletics world champs in the women’s 100m and men’s pole vault, respectively, can trace their global success back to – in part – to their collegiate days, where Duplantis and Richardson competed side-by-side at Lousiana State University.

“It’s weird in a way,” Duplantis recently told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview at the Stockholm Diamond League in his native Sweden.

“Because I think both of us, we knew we were capable of these kinds of things. But, you know, in sports, not everything pans out the way that you think it is going to.”

Duplantis and Richardson both began their LSU careers in 2018, with Mondo winning an NCAA indoor title and Sha’Carri capturing hers outdoors. They were co-finalists for the prestigious Bowerman Award, with Richardson winning the women’s honour.

They’re set to be two of the biggest names not only in athletics but in all of the Olympics come Paris*.

“I’m so proud of her,” Duplantis said of Richardson. “It’s such a weird thing to think where we were then, not even just as athletes, [but] as people, too. And then to see where we are now, it’s super special.”