Some of the anticipated head-to-head matchups of the monitor and subject portion of the 2024 Paris Olympics was Staff USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and The Netherlands’ Femke Bol within the ladies’s 400-meter hurdles. McLaughlin-Levrone entered because the reigning Olympic champion and world report holder, whereas Bol gained the 2023 world title (when McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t compete as a result of harm) and is the second-fastest in historical past.
It was not even a contest.
Within the ultimate 150 meters, McLaughlin-Levrone left Bol and everybody else within the mud, making it seem to be she was someway in a lane with none 30-inch boundaries in her method. She crossed the end line in a ridiculous 50.37 seconds, decreasing her earlier world report by almost 0.3 seconds.
Bol, who gained gold with an amazing comeback within the combined 4×400 meters relay over the USA, surprisingly drifted to bronze behind American Anna Cockrell, whose 51.87 seconds is a private greatest and makes her the fourth-fastest in historical past.
The dominance of McLaughlin-Levrone on this occasion is unmatched. Her final six championship races, US or international, have all been world report wins.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s private world report development
2020 US Olympic Trials (held in 2021) – 51.90 seconds (earlier report: 52.16 seconds by Dalilah Muhammad)
2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021) – 51.46 seconds
2022 US World Championship Trials – 51.41 seconds
2022 World Championships – 50.68 seconds
2024 US Olympic Trials – 50.65 seconds
2024 Paris Olympics – 50.37 seconds
It’s important to return to the 2019 World Championships for Sydney’s final loss within the 400m hurdles, when Muhammad lowered her earlier report from 52.20 to 52.16. Russia’s Yuliya Pechonkina had the world report from 2003 to 2019 at 52.34, and McLaughlin-Levrone has bettered that mark by almost two full seconds over the previous 5 years.
McLaughlin-Levrone is slated to compete within the 4×400 meters relay, the place she’s been Staff USA’s anchor leg of their gold medal wins within the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Championships in Eugene.
Sadly, the timetable doesn’t often align for an unthinkable 400m flat/400m hurdles double in main championships, however when you think about McLaughlin-Levrone’s private greatest within the flat is 48.74 seconds, it’s exhausting not to consider the potential of her at the least switching to the flat sooner or later. She clearly has no equal within the 400m hurdles and is the GOAT.
