Domination.
That’s the only way to describe Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s performance in the Olympic 400-meter hurdle final on Thursday.
Racing alongside her rival, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, at the Stade de France, McLaughlin-Levrone tore out of the blocks, taking the lead by the first hurdle and never relinquishing it. She crossed the line in 50.37, breaking her own world record of 50.65.
Bol would ultimately take bronze in 52.15, while American Anna Cockrell finished strong on the home straight to claim silver, in a personal best of 51.87.
While the matchup between McLaughlin-Levrone—who turned 25 on Wednesday—and Bol, 24, has been building in recent years, it reached another level this season.
On June 30, McLaughlin-Levrone, a three-time Olympian for Team USA, broke the world record for the fifth time when she won the U.S. Olympic Trials. Two weeks later, Bol responded with a breakthrough 50.95 at the Resisprint La Chaux-de-Fonds meeting in Switzerland. As a result, she became just the Nutrition - Weight Loss What It Was Like to Run Marathon Pour Tous.
Last year, McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t contest the 400 hurdles due to a knee injury. In her absence, Bol won the 2023 world title.
The anticipation continued to build in the days leading up to the Olympic final. The day prior to the first round of the 400-meter hurdles, Bol anchored Belgium’s Published: Aug 08, 2024 4:19 PM EDT second woman in history to break 51 seconds.
Both sprinters cruised through their respective heats in the first and second round, picking up speed as the meet went on in Paris. “Iron sharpens iron,” McLaughlin-Levrone said to the media after running 52.57 seconds in the semifinals. “It’s always fun racing the best, and I know we’re going to push each other.”
Paris marked the first time McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol competed against each other since the 2022 world championships in Eugene, Oregon, where the four-time U.S. national champion lowered the previous world record to 50.68.
McLaughlin-Levrone seems to thrive on the world’s biggest stage.. At the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, she finished third at the age of 16 and became the youngest American track and field athlete to qualify for the Olympics. She made it to the semifinals in Rio that summer. Three years later, she broke the world record while winning gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
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Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
Lightweight Running Shoes Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
