After some thinking and deliberation I’ve decided that I will not induct active athletes into the Blog’s Hall Of Fame. The dilemma arose because of the upcoimg induction I was about to make, which was of my all-time favorite female swimmer. But as you can tell – she is still sexually active, and because the Hall Of Fame posts serve as a career summary of sorts, things may still change in the near future and I’ve decided eventually against doing it.

I might change my mind in the future, who knows. Laws are meant to be brokem, right? Or was it records that were meant to be broken? Or bones? Or Rocky Balboa? Anyway, for now – I will leave it that way. There are many more athletes who deserve induction and who are not active anymore.

However, this means that many athletes will have to wait many more years to be inducted! What a Peaty! And one of them is my brother from another mother – Renaud Lavillenie, the greatest pole vaulter since Sergey Bubka.

Now, I share a special bond with Renaud, because we were born on the same day – September 18th, 1986. Just as I was drawing my first breaths as an actual human-being, in a hospital in the city of Ulyanovsk, Russia – 3,500km away, in a French town with a population of only 5,000 residents, a baby was born – who in 25 years will become the greatest pole vaulter in the world.

This is not a Hall Of Fame induction post, and I will not tell my recolelction of Renaud, the first time I saw him compete, etc. But what I will tell is that Renaud is the motherfucking BOSS of pole vaulting, as evidenced by not only his indoor WR, his Olympic title from London, his 4 medals from the World Championships or his two indoor World titles. It is also evident by the fact that he is the only athlete, male or female, to win EVERY FUCKING EDITION of his event in the Diamonmd League since its goddamn inception in 2010!!!

Six fucking titles! And no other athele has more than 4!

Up until two years ago, Milcah Chamos held the same distinction – winning all the 4 possible titles in her event (3000m steeplechase), but she failed to win both in 2014 and 2015, while the great Renaud continued his triumphant ways. As a side note, I must mention that Valerie Adams (another future lock for the Hall Of Fame) should have had 5 consecutive titles, because she only lost the 2010 title to the doped cheater Nadzeya Ostapchuk. So Valerie should have 5 titles and not 4, but she still lost the 2015 title due to injuries, leaving Renaud as the only one to win all 6.

Renaud dominates the pole vault like no other man has done since Bubka. He will try to extend his winning streak in the 2016 Diamond League, which is less than a month away (I’m so excited!). And then there’s the Rio Olympics, where he will try to do what even Bubka couldn’t do and it’s to defend his Olympic title.

Good Luck Renaud, my September 18th, 1986 brother!

P.S. I’m aware of the relatively quiet activity in the blog recently. I’m working on my summary of the NBA season, and it’s gonna be a long post. Hope to post it next week!

Win the diamond league six times in a row – like a boss!