Duplantis makes pole vault looks so easy.
To the untrained eye and someone who knows nothing about pole vaulting (me), what I think is that he looks unique in how he does it. It's hard to explain but he's clearly much faster than most vaulters (he might race Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 100m for an experiment) and that is the first step - that top speed gives him more momentum when it comes to planting his pole (lol).
But after that, in the jump...he seems to just sail over effortlessly, whereas all the other guys I have seen look like they're straining to miss the pole. I don't know if it's a combination of his incredible talent, his body shape and type, his size, the way he moves his body and arches his back. But his vaulting is an absolutely gorgeous thing to watch - it just looks like such perfect form to my (as I say) untrained eye.
He just looks like he sails over as I say. Like he's being carried over by wings. The other guys look less fluid and more 'strained'.
Like I say it's difficult to put into words what I mean, without being a pole vault follower in general.