Renaud Lavillenie, Interview from Birmingham 2018 World Indoors (The RunBlogRun Archives)

Renaud Lavillenie has been an elite pole vaulter for nearly two decades. Renaud began his elite journey in 2009.

Among his medals were gold in the 2012 London Olympics and silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Renaud won silver in the 2013 Moscow World Outdoors and bronze in the 2009 Berlin, 2011 Daegu, 2015 Beijing, and 2017 London World Championships.

Renaud Lavillenie, photo by Diamond League AG

Three golds in World Indoors: Istanbul 2012, Portland 2016, and Birmingham 2018, for Renaud Lavillenie. This interview is from BMX 2018.

Gold medals for Renaud in European Outdoors: 2010 Barcelona, 2012 Helsinki, and 2014 Zurich. I loved watching him live in Zurich!

Mondo Duplantis, Renaud Lavillenie, Sam Kendricks, photo circa 2017, photo by Dagensnyheter.se

And four European Indoor champs: 2009 Turin, 2011 Paris, 2013 Gothenburg, and 2015 Prague.

This is a fun interview. Renaud talks about the competition, the All-Star Perche events he founded, and his approach to vaulting. Renaud Lavillenie has always been a great interview. My first was in Paris in 2011, where he asked me to do questions in French. My French sucks, but Renaud loved messing with me.

Renaud Lavillenie is a class act who loves the sport, his comrades in the pole vault, and his family and friends. I have always loved how he helped Mondo Duplantis when Mondo was young, knowing he would be one of the greats.

On August 20, 2026, Renaud Lavillenie cleared 5.45m . The former world record holder, Monsieur Lavillenie, is 39 years old. We love seeing “Le roi du saut a la perche” competing in the Diamond League!

Thanks, Renaud Lavillenie, for your support and enthusiasm for our sport!

Renaud Lavillenie, photo by Spikes.IAAF.org

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

View all posts