On August 23rd 2026 Armand Duplantis is coming back to the Diamond League in Silesia! The world pole vault record holder and freshly crowned Athlete of the Year in the World Athletics poll will inspire the Polish audience once again. – This is a place where everything is right for me – the Swede said.
Preparations for the Saint Nicholas Day have been going on for months. In Lapland the reindeer are re-remembering how to fly and Saint Nicholas relearns to steer. Presents will be plentiful for whose who have been good. And, as it happens, the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial – or, more precisely, its audience – did a splendid job this year.
The last edition of the Silesia Diamond League turned out to be the third best one-day athletics meeting ever on the World Athletics point tables. Over 40 thousand fans cheered from the stands for dozens of Olympic and world champions. The number show that, even if Poland came back from the World Championships in Tokyo with just one medal, the interest in athletics remains high in Poland. The autumn ticket sales for next year’s edition are confirming this further. The interest in premium seats is already great. The best sectors are already starting to fill up.
– The people are putting blind trust in us, which is very nice. But it is time to reveal the first ace from the 2026 deck – announced Piotr Małachowski, sports director of the meeting taking place in the Superauto.pl Silesian Stadium.
Santa, who rewards good behaviour with premium gifts, has confirmed: it is Armand Duplantis.
Mondo will be appearing at the „Kama” for the fifth consecutive year. He is the meeting’s good-luck charm and in 2024 he became a world record setter – at the time the mark was 6.26.
– I feel really appreciated and loved here. I like the stadium, I appreciate the crowd. But, honestly speaking, I like everything in Silesia. I love it all: the venue, the city, even the sushi restaurant close to the hotel that I visit when I am here. It is a pleasure to be here and to be a part of it all – he stated during his last visit. He has more favourite restaurants in the area. All the media informed about his going out for a burger after the record vault one and a half years ago.
For those present in the restaurant at the time, Duplantis’s visit came as a shock. For wherever he appears, he is recognised. The Swedish wonderman needs no introductions. He does it himself with his athletic excellence and a personality that draws crowds. It is for him that the world’s largest athletics stadiums have been filling up for the last several years. With his pole, he has been re-writing the history of his event. It is because of him that the volunteers in the Dalarna region regularly need to hire a crane and raise the symbolic construction commemorating the 26-year old’s records.
The 2025 season, just as the previous ones, belonged to Mondo. No longer just an athlete, but also a singer with millions of views, he came out with a string of hits. He took the world record, which he has held continuosly since the 6.17 level, to 6.30. After setting the mark in Silesia, he did it again in Clermont-Ferrand, Stockholm, Budapest and Tokyo. The stage for his latest mark was the World Championship final – the perfect spot to inspire generations with his talent.
Naturally, Duplantis took gold, his third consecutive outdoor title. He was rewarded with the Athlete of the Year award at the gala in Monaco several days ago.
– He is ahead of his time, but for all his talent he remains a great normal guy. What we love about him is that his joy is real. His struggles in competition are visible. He is not a robot, but one of us. At the same time every one of us would like to be him – said Marek Plawgo, the Memorial’s communications director. He added: – the best sectors in the Witches’ Cauldron to see him are 1D, 2D and 3D. But, speaking from experience, the entire curve area is the vaulters’ domain. I suggest you hurry up if you wish to be a part of it. Looking at the sales dynamics,soon it may be too late. Especially now that we know Mondo will be competing again.
Tickets for the event may be reserved on the MemorialKamili.pl website. Until year end only, tickets for the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial are available at the lowest early-bird prices as part of a Christmas promotion. This is the lowest price level offered. Following the success of the offer in past years, the organisers offer 3+1 family packages. Their popularity has been growing year by year and it is also possible to make group reservations, e.g. for athletics clubs wishing to view the country’s greatest show of the year.
The meeting, scheduled for August 23rd, will of course entail much more besides the pole vault competition. The Diamond League has now announced the exact allocation of the events between the stops on the tour.
– There will be no shortage of sprinting, including both 100-metre races, women’s 400m, as well as clashes of the top hurdlers of both sexes. We expect a super fast men’s 1500m and a fantastic women’s high jump competition. That was the event which brought us a medal in Tokyo. In negotiating with the League we also took care of throwing events. But the most important event will be the hammer throw. That was the one Kamila Skolimowska competed in. It is for her that we do it all – Małachowski concluded.
As was the case last year, one day before the main part of the event, a street competition will take place in the Katowice Market Square.