There is one indicator that describes Emmanuel Karalis’s career better than any other: three years ago, a jump of 5.80 m. would have earned him a medal at a European event. On Sunday in Birmingham, a jump of 6.00 m. left him in second place. Karalis did not change for the worse. The “ceiling” of the event changed, and he himself rose with it.
The 26-year-old Greek champion started comfortably at 5.55 m., left 5.70 m. and clearly passed 5.85 m. The crucial jump came at 5.95 m., which he cleared on the first attempt and essentially locked in a place on the podium. At 6.00 m. he needed two attempts.
From there, the match turned into a two-man duel. Left alone against Monto Duplantis, Karalis chose the offensive tactic: a beam of 6.10 m, then 6.15 m, then 6.20 m, a height that would have been a new Panhellenic outdoor track and field record. None of the three attempts were valid, the weather conditions were not helping, but the message had been sent. No one else on the planet forces the Swede to work so hard for a gold.
Duplantis eventually won the title with 6.15 m. — a competition record — which he had already tied at 6.10 m. It is his fourth consecutive European gold medal in outdoor track, after Berlin (2018), Munich (2022) and Rome (2024). The bronze went to Frenchman Baptiste Thierry with 5.85 m, a full 15 centimeters behind Karalis, a distance that shows how far the Greek-Swedish duo has fallen from the rest of Europe.
The Birmingham medal is Karalis’ ninth in a major men’s event, all within a three-year period:
| Year | Organization | Position | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | European Indoor, Istanbul | 2nd | 5.80 m. |
| 2024 | World Indoor Championships, Glasgow | 3rd | 5.85 m. |
| 2024 | European, Rome | 2nd | 5.87 m. |
| 2024 | Olympic Games, Paris | 3rd | 5.90 m. |
| 2025 | European Indoor, Apeldoorn | 1st | 5.90 m. |
| 2025 | World Indoor Championships, Nanjing | 2nd | — |
| 2025 | World, Tokyo | 2nd | — |
| 2026 | World Indoor Championships, Toruń | 2nd | 6.05 m. |
| 2026 | European, Birmingham | 2nd | 6.00 p.m. |
If the silver medal from the 2023 European Games in Poland, as well as the age category distinctions, is added to the list, the total tally reaches 14 medals, hence the difference that one encounters in the various counts.
Two milestones stand out. The first is the bronze in Paris in 2024, the first Olympic medal for a Greek pole vaulter — three years after fourth place in Tokyo, which at the time seemed like a cruel injustice. The second is Apeldoorn in March 2025, where he became the first Greek to win a European pole vault title. It remains, to this day, the only gold in his collection in a major men’s event.
The real earthquake did not occur at an international championship, but in Paiania. At the Panhellenic Indoor Championships in February 2026, Karalis first passed 6.07 m. and then 6.17 m. — the best performance in the world for the year and the second best of all time, above Sergey Bubka (6.15 m.) and Renaud Lavillenie (6.16 m.). He then asked for 6.31 m., a centimeter above Duplantis’ world record. Bubka himself publicly took his hat off to him.
His personal record in outdoor track and field remains 6.08 m., a performance he achieved at the Panhellenic Games in Volos in 2025. The gap between the 6.17 m. in indoor and the 6.08 m. in outdoor is, in essence, his next big project.
