Barrier-breaking Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone chases historic hurdles double
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone posing with her new world record in the women's 400 metres hurdles at the US Olympic trials on June 30.
PHOTO: AFP
LOS ANGELES – From the moment she qualified for her first Olympic Games as a 16-year-old high school student, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has never paid much attention to conventional wisdom.
For more than three decades since Soviet hurdler Marina Stepanova became the first woman to run the 400m hurdles in under 53 seconds in 1986, the athletics world had wondered when, or if, the 52sec barrier would be broken.
Yet in the space of a few seasons, McLaughlin-Levrone has obliterated that longstanding benchmark, redefining notions of what was possible in her event.
In 2021, she clocked a world record 51.90sec at the US Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, to become the first woman under the 52sec mark. She followed that up by shaving a massive 0.44sec off her own record when she stormed to victory at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 51.46sec.
In 2022, she bettered that mark at the US championships in Eugene with a time of 51.41sec, before clocking a jaw-dropping time of 50.68sec on her way to victory at the world championships a month later.
After dabbling with the flat 400m in 2023, McLaughlin-Levrone returned to her specialist event this season and has once again returned to her record-breaking ways.
She booked her place in Paris with another world record at the US Olympic trials in June, storming home in 50.65sec with a performance that appeared to take even herself by surprise.
“I was not expecting that. I’m just amazed, baffled and shocked,” she said after her victory in Eugene.
It was the sort of performance that suggests McLaughlin-Levrone is more than ready to make more history in Paris, where she could become the first woman to successfully defend the 400m hurdles title.
She is likely to face a stiff challenge in the form of the Netherlands’ Femke Bol, who won gold at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, Hungary, in the absence of the injured American and has just become only the second woman to break the 51sec barrier, clocking 50.95sec on July 14.
But McLaughlin-Levrone relishes competition, citing her early career rivalry with 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad as helping push her to new heights, a case of “iron sharpening iron” as she describes it.
Few would bet against her retaining the Olympic crown at the Stade de France on Aug 8, a day after she turns 25.
As well as her Olympic title, she will also be defending a five-year unbeaten streak in her event. Her last defeat over the 400m hurdles came in the final of the 2019 world championships in Doha, where she was pipped to victory by her compatriot Muhammad.
Born in New Jersey in 1999, track and field was embedded in McLaughlin-Levrone’s DNA.
Her father, Willie McLaughlin, reached the semi-finals in the 400m at the US trials for the 1984 Olympics, while her mother Mary was a respectable half-miler.
As a young girl, McLaughlin-Levrone watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and her idol Allyson Felix, and was determined that she would one day perform on the same stage.
After reaching the 400m hurdles semi-finals at Rio 2016, her progression continued steadily before her breakthrough Olympic crown in 2021, her improvements coming rapidly after linking up with new coach Bobby Kersee in 2020.
In Tokyo, she added another gold medal after forming part of the 4x400m relay squad, where she raced alongside Felix, who was competing in her fifth Games at age 35.
“Since I was eight years old, that’s something I had aspired to do, and for it to finally come to fruition felt like a weight off my shoulders,” McLaughlin-Levrone said of her 2021 gold.
Victory in Paris would raise the prospect of her targeting a third straight Olympic gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, as she said she sees herself running well beyond this summer’s Olympics.
“It does get harder as the years go by,” she said in an interview with Women’s Health magazine.
“It can be physically draining, mentally draining, and that’s why taking breaks and remembering why you love it is so important. Track is not going to last forever, so I’m trying to continue to enjoy it. I don’t want to take anything for granted.” AFP
