Emmanouil Karalis: The Man Jumping Behind the Greatest Pole Vaulter Ever
Greek pole vaulter Emmanouil Karalis ranks second behind world record holder Armand Duplantis, overcoming severe racism and aiming to break out of his rival's shadow.
The list is long and legendary: the Dutch football teams, especially in the seventies, the Buffalo Bills, the Utah Jazz, Raymond "Poupou" Poulidor, Frankie Fredericks, Jimmy White. Legendary teams and individuals who came a millimeter from the promised land and failed to take the final step. Only, the notion that "who remembers Bar Kokhba's runner-up" does not really hold up in sports. The Dutch team of 1974 had a much greater impact on world football than Germany, which beat them in the final. Not many people can automatically name the teams that beat Buffalo four times in the Super Bowl, but documentaries have been made about Buffalo's perennial heartbreak. Utah's superstars, John Stockton and Karl Malone, were the perfect antagonists to Michael Jordan and the Bulls' last dance in the late nineties. But Emmanouil Karalis of Greece is a runner-up of a different kind. He is a superstar in the pole vault. With a jump of 6.17 meters in March, an astonishing improvement of nine centimeters on his previous personal best, he surpassed his idol Sergey Bubka (and Renaud Lavillenie) and recorded the second-best performance in history. He is a main star in the golden age of the event, and yet, he enters every competition knowing in advance: he is competing for second place, at best. That is what happens when you are born in the same generation as Armand Duplantis of Sweden, the world record holder with an imaginative mark of 6.31 meters.
Jumping Over Racism
Karalis was born in 1999 in Athens to a sporting family. His Ugandan mother, Sarah, was a long jumper, and his father competed in the decathlon. They fell in love during training. His twin sister, Angeliki, became a heptathlete. At age four, he was in the stands for the athletic competitions of the Athens Olympics and fell in love with the sport. His father tried to convince him to follow in his footsteps and compete in the decathlon. Karalis agreed. The father focused first on teaching technical disciplines, with pole vaulting as the first step. There was no second step. In the beginning of his career, Karalis did not have to overcome technique, heights, injuries, or competitors, but something much worse: the filthy racism in Greece toward Black people. It happened at the school he attended, in the streets, on the playgrounds, and it happened all the more intensely in the world of athletics, where he was an object of ridicule by his training partners and especially the coaches, who claimed that Black people were not born to pole vault. Karalis sank into depression, but he understood he had only one way to break this cycle of poison: to prove to everyone that Black people can pole vault, to become one of the best in the world, and to bring pride and medals to Greece. Instead of a boy mocked and insulted for the color of his skin, he would become an object of admiration.
In September 1999, Karalis's mother was hospitalized due to complications in her twin pregnancy, and that same month, a devastating earthquake struck Athens. On October 20, the twins were born healthy. Meanwhile, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a female decathlete who emigrated from Sweden met a pole vaulter at a university training facility, and in November 1999, they brought Armand Duplantis into the world.
Breaking the Ice
There are two things that distinguish Karalis's career: he warms up and jumps to the sound of Sirtaki, the music composed by Mikis Theodorakis for "Zorba the Greek" which became the unofficial anthem of Greece, and an almost permanent ranking in second place. Wherever Karalis looks, he sees Duplantis's back. Duplantis is Karalis's enemy, the only athlete standing between him and true world glory, but you could never tell from Karalis's behavior: he cheers for Duplantis, hugs him after he breaks records, and rejoices in his achievements. Karalis knows that Duplantis is unreachable, that he resides on a different Olympus. It is clear to Karalis and other pole vaulters in the golden age of the discipline that without him, they would not have reached their current achievements; his excellence constantly pushes them in every competition. And yet, there is sadness woven into the statement of an elite athlete who says, "Even if I break the world record, I still won't win gold," as Karalis said last week before the Diamond League meeting in Brussels.
During the pre-meet warm-up, Duplantis felt a groin strain and general fatigue and decided to withdraw. Karalis approached to comfort and hug him. A jump of 5.92 meters was enough for Karalis to win his first Diamond League gold. He raised the bar to 6.12 meters—a meeting record, the record set by that man, Duplantis. The Sirtaki made the arena shake. Karalis ran, planted the pole, and left air for the bar. A thirty-thousand-dollar bonus, a first gold medal, and he left the Swede behind. After silver medals at the European and World Championships, indoors and outdoors, and an Olympic bronze, "Manolo" Karalis broke the ice. A week ago in Zurich, he jumped to a height of 6.20 meters. Manolo is breathing down Mondo's neck. Yet he finished the Zurich competition in second place as well, after Mondo cleared 6.25 meters. This weekend, the athletics world's next major competition begins, this time in Budapest, where Karalis will have to prove that not only can he jump 6.20 or 6.30, but he is finally ready to step out of the giant shadow that Duplantis casts over all his competitors.
