If I go only thinking about medals I'm missing the whole meaning of what I've always been trying to do, which is trying to push myself and push the barriers of what is possible.
Armand Duplantis: Beyond the Record, Beyond the Medal
On 7 September 2025, Armand Duplantis stood in Uppsala, his adopted home, and cleared 6.31 metres at his own Mondo Classic event. He was already a two-time Olympic champion and the world record holder. He raised the bar anyway. This week, we reflect on what his words ask of us.
Armand Duplantis: "If I go only thinking about medals I'm missing the whole meaning of what I've always been trying to do, which is trying to push myself and push the barriers of what is possible."
Excellence as exploration
Duplantis has broken the world record more than ten times, from 6.17 metres in 2020 to 6.31 metres last year. He was named World Athlete of the Year for 2025. By any external measure, he has already arrived. And yet his attention remains on the question of what is still possible, on the doing rather than the having done.
That orientation is something many of you will recognise. The Laidlaw experience asks you to pursue research and leadership without a guaranteed outcome, to invest seriously in something whose value cannot be fully measured in grades or results. Duplantis puts words to what that commitment feels like from the inside: a relationship with your own effort that the result alone cannot exhaust.
Raising the bar as a leadership practice
Records have come at the Olympics, at major championships, and at a community event in Sweden. The setting has rarely determined the standard he holds himself to. Many of you carry that same quality into your work, bringing rigour and care to projects that may not yet have an audience, in communities that are still finding their shape. That consistency is its own form of leadership. It is also, perhaps, the hardest kind; the kind that asks you to keep going before the world has confirmed that what you are doing matters.
Duplantis's challenge aligns with the Laidlaw value of being #Ambitious and the Oxford Character Project virtue of #Integrity. Ambition, here, means staying genuinely connected to the purpose beneath the goal. Integrity means bringing the same quality of attention to your work in every context, not only the visible ones.
A call to reflect
We invite you to carry Duplantis's question into your own work. What are you still curious about, beyond what is being measured? Where might you push further, simply because you want to find out what is there?Â
Photo credit: Adam Klingeteg/Red Bull Content Pool
Hi! I'm Amanda, a third year Neuroscience student and Laidlaw alum from UCL. I'm Swedish-Persian and grew up in Sweden before moving to London for uni. These days, alongside my studies, I work for the Foundation as a Marketing Assistant.
For my first year research project, I worked on optimising alginate hydrogels for 3D astrocyte culture systems. In simpler terms, I was figuring out the best way to prepare a jelly-like scaffolds so that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes could grow in three dimensions rather than flat on a dish. This matters because 3D environments mimic the brain more realistically, which could help researchers develop better treatments for neurological disorders!
For my Leadership-in-Action project, I co-created Beyond the Books, a resource designed to help students from underrepresented backgrounds navigate the unwritten rules of university life, from internships and networking to professional opportunities that aren't always obvious if you're the first in your family to go to uni.
Always happy to connect, whether you want to chat about neuroscience, widening access, the Laidlaw experience, or just say hello! One of my favourite things about this community is getting to meet people from different universities and backgrounds, so please do reach out! 🌟
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