Turns out, she wasn’t hiding or looking for something else to do. She was getting better at what she does best.
The 24-year-old Olympic champion broke the world record for the fifth time Sunday, closing out the U.S. Olympic trials with 10 jumps over the hurdles, then an all-out sprint toward the finish line in 50.65 seconds. He broke his previous record by .03 seconds.
This came on the last day of testing at Hayward Field. His first record came in 2021 – also on the last day of the trials and at Hayward Field.
In fact, it is the fourth of his five world records set on the track at the University of Oregon, which has hosted some of American track’s greatest moments over the past quarter century.
However, to say that he expected it would not be an understatement.
“Just shock. Honestly shocked,” McLaughlin-Levron said, covering her mouth in surprise as she crossed and looked at the time. “I know when it first came out it said, ‘50.67.’ I was like, ‘There’s no way.’
Then, the clock counted down two ticks.
“I wasn’t expecting that time,” she said.
Counting the two preliminary rounds at the trials this week, it was only McLaughlin-Levron’s fourth 400 meter hurdles race of the season. Unlike other times she’s taken to the track, there wasn’t much buzz about her mark of 50.68 — which was set at the world championships in 2022, also here in Hayward — falling short this time.
A closer look reveals that it was all just part of the plan.
She spent her time working on the 200 and 400 meter sprints as well as the short hurdles, both of which she indicated could be her main events in the future. In fact, all those races were making him better at his main job. These are all good for speed. Small obstacles helped him master the difficult art of jumping with both feet.
“She ran in Atlanta, and she was having trouble attacking the hurdles and keeping her steps together” Because of her new speed, hurdler great Edwin Moses predicted McLaughlin-Levron’s first 400-hurdle race of 2024. Said about. “I told him I’ve had similar problems and his brain just had to understand the physicality of it.
It happened, and in an event that used to be decided by steps or slivers, McLaughlin-Leveron won by 1.99 seconds over Anna Cockrell and 2.12 seconds over Jasmine Jones.
“He’s really fast and he’s really strong, it’s hard to say it any other way,” Cockrell said.
The latest record doesn’t so much reset the story line for the Olympics – McLaughlin-Levron would have been the big-time favorite either way – as it forces the track to once again rethink what’s possible.
Now, instead of the highly anticipated showdown with Femke Boll of the Netherlands, the conversation will turn to when the 50-second mark might dip in this race. Probably August 8, which is the date of the Olympic final in Paris.
“It may be so,” said Moses. “He might need a few more races, but that’s all.”
Sydney McLaughlin-Levron reacts after winning the women’s 400 meter hurdles on the final day of the US Track and Field Trials.
(Charlie Niebergal/Associated Press)
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone poses for a photo after setting a world record in the women’s 400 meters hurdles.
(Charlie Niebergal/Associated Press)
It has been a remarkable journey that has happened remarkably fast.
From 2003 to 2019, the world record in this event remained stuck at 52.34. American Dalilah Muhammad broke it twice in 2019 — the second time at the world championships in a race that demoralized McLaughlin-Levron and prompted a visit from coach Bobby Kersey.
Kersey changed everything for him. One of the biggest adjustments was dropping him 14 steps between the early hurdles. This was a game-changer that not only put him up in a class but forced him to rework his takeoffs, helping him work on smaller obstacles.
“I’ve said it before, (he) just set a world record and it feels like we’re not even shocked at this point,” said Muhammad, the 2016 Olympic champion who finished sixth on Sunday. “He is an amazing talent, definitely a generational talent. I didn’t know I was the only one to defeat him, so congratulations to me.”
In addition to leaving the trials with a world record in the hurdles, she is also the world leader in the flat 400 this year.
McLaughlin-Levron ran 48.75 in New York in early June – not only more speed work, but a challenging signal for any country hoping to challenge the US in the 4×400 relay in Paris.
McLaughlin-Levron began running all those 400s and 200s shortly after the 2022 world championships in Eugene, at which time she lowered the world record to 50.68.
At the time, she hinted that all of these races could be her future. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that she said she was going back to her first love.
Then, on a cool night in Oregon, she pulled back the curtain on the 2024 Olympic Trials, and delivered a little shock on the track at the same time: All those other races weren’t just for kicks.
“The 400 hurdles is a combination of all that,” he said. “It’s the smaller odds combined with the 4, combined with the 2. You need that stamina, that speed and that technicality. So they were definitely putting blocks in the way of us moving forward.”
Eddie Pels is a writer for the Associated Press.
