Paris Olympics: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins gold, sets new world record in 400 hurdles

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SAINT-DENIS, France — The showdown between the two best female 400 hurdlers in the world — Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol — turned out to be a race between McLaughlin-Levrone and the clock.

McLaughlin-Levrone arrived in Paris as the reigning Olympic champion in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Bol had taken advantage of the American star’s absence to claim World Championship gold last year.

McLaughlin-Levrone earlier this summer lowered the 400 hurdles world record for the fifth time since June 2021. In June, her Dutch rival became the only other women’s 400 hurdler ever to break the 51-second barrier.

So Thursday’s clash, coming 748 days after the world’s two greatest hurdlers last faced each other, came with some added juice, and not just because there was Olympic gold on the line. Then the gun sounded, McLaughlin-Levrone fired out of the block, was chased down Bol by the far turn, and then raced the final 100 meters alone, chasing only herself.

When she crossed the line, the clock read 50.37, or .28 faster than anyone — namely her — had run this race before.

And it wasn’t Bol who followed her across the line. Fellow American Anna Cockrell took second in 51.87, while Bol settled for bronze (52.15).

To put McLaughlin-Levrone’s jaw-dropping time into proper perspective, consider that it isn’t just 400-meter hurdlers who can’t keep pace with her. McLaughlin-Levrone ran faster on Thursday night than 16 of the 24 women who competed the previous night in the Olympic open 400 semifinals. That’s the race without 10 hurdles.

Chasing the seemingly impossible is what motivates McLaughlin-Levrone.

As she said at Olympic Trials six weeks ago, “I think there’s something really exciting about figuring out how to improve upon history.”

McLaughlin-Levrone’s victory tightens her stranglehold on the 400 hurdles and bolsters her case as track and field’s most dominant athlete. She last lost a 400-meter hurdles race in July 2019, a streak of 25 consecutive races.

Three times during that stretch, she has faced Bol. Three times, she has decisively won. McLaughlin-Levrone and Muhammad both beat a 21-year-old Bol three years ago in Tokyo in the Olympic 400 final. McLaughlin-Lavrone’s margin of victory increased to a massive 1.59 seconds the following year at World Championships.

What happened next is what made Thursday night’s final so intriguing. Bol, 24, progressed steadily the past two years, lowering her times, gaining confidence and laying waste to everyone in her path. The sight of Bol with her arms raised in victory has become one of the most common on the international track circuit.

McLaughlin-Lavrone, 25, has continued to race sparingly, preferring to save herself for the global championship meets. She took a one-year break from the 400 hurdles, embracing the challenge of focusing on the open 400 for the first time in her career.

The scarcity of matchups between McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol added to the anticipation as Thursday night’s final approached. Both athletes are so accustomed to running with the lead. No one knew who would flinch first when faced with race pressure.

McLaughlin-Levrone has been marked for world domination since before she was old enough to legally drive a car. By 16, the New Jersey native had already claimed her first Gatorade high school athlete of the year award, rewritten the high school record book and made her first U.S. Olympic team.

In a sport littered with teen phenoms who failed to live up to their hype, McLaughlin has proven to be the exception. When McLaughlin-Levrone turned pro after her freshman year at Kentucky, Muhammad had just started to bust through old barriers by dipping under 53 seconds. McLaughlin-Levrone took that and built on it, dragging along a generation of young hurdlers who are now starting to run 52s and 53s alongside her.

It isn’t just one trait that makes McLaughlin-Levrone great, her competitors say. It’s the combination of her speed, endurance and hurdling technique that make her lethal. McLaughlin-Levrone’s fastest time this season in the 200 meters would have been enough to win silver in Tuesday’s Olympic final. Her top time in the open 400 is the second fastest in the world so far this year.

Pursuing those events could be an option for another year. For now, McLaughlin-Levrone is content to be the queen of the 400 hurdles.

How much faster could McLaughlin-Levrone possibly get? The answer that Muhammad gave earlier this summer should leave McLaughlin-Lavrone’s opponents seeking new events.

Said Muhammad, “I still think she can go 49.”

She’s only got .38 to shave to get there.