Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone: the queen looking to expand her empire Premium

The American has broken the 400m hurdles world record an incredible four times. The World and Olympic champion wants to continue pushing the limits of the event but is also eyeing forays into the 400m flat and the 100m hurdles

Only a few athletes in track and field’s long history have dominated their event in the manner in which Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has monopolised the 400m hurdles.

In the hurdles world before McLaughlin-Levrone, it took years to shave fractions of seconds off records, and winning races didn’t always mean rewriting history. But the once-in-a-lifetime athlete is obliterating that mindset as quickly as she is destroying records.

She has run five of the six fastest times in history. And in an astonishing 13-month period between June 2021 and July 2022, she broke the world record on four occasions!

The last and most staggering of those runs came at last year’s World Championships on a clear night at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

In a consummate display that combined athleticism, technique and strategy, McLaughlin-Levrone left a loaded field for dead from the gun. At the 150-metre mark, her biggest rivals, Femke Bol and Dalilah Muhammad, were playing catch-up. By the time the American reached the final curve, it was clear this would strictly be a race against the clock.

McLaughlin-Levrone hared through to the tape in a stunning 50.68 seconds, demolishing her world mark of 51.41s, set a month earlier. If that weren’t jaw-dropping enough, consider this perspective: her time after negotiating 10 hurdles over 400m would have seen her beat two runners in the women’s flat 400m final at the same World Championships!