Sprinter Sydney McLaughlin Levrone’s only real competition is herself | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

She looked almost alone in the final stretch, effortlessly sliding over the final hurdles and crossing the finish line about 10 metres ahead of her nearest rival, a lone woman. The word that comes to mind when watching Sydney McLaughlin-Levron in the 400m hurdles is Unfazedsomewhere behind the roar of 68,000 full-strength spectators and eight competitors in her distant wake, is the embodiment of poise, technique and steely focus. She doesn’t seem to run that fast.

The United States’ 100th medal at the Paris Olympics was perhaps both the most exciting and the least exciting. The pride of New Brunswick, clearly inspired by divine power unlike any New Jersey native since Whitney Houston, delivered a stunning Olympic performance Thursday night, narrowing a final that had been a showdown with Femke Bohl of the Netherlands to Belmont Secretariat. Watching McLaughlin-Levron break free of the Dutch star on the final turn and fly across the tape 1.5 seconds ahead of her American teammate Anna Cockrell confirmed what everyone knew deep down: Her only rival was herself.

Let’s start with the basics. McLaughlin-Leverone, who turned 25 on Wednesday, broke the 400-meter hurdles world record for the first time at the 2021 U.S. Olympic trials, broke it in Tokyo and has lowered it four more times since, including by nearly three-tenths of a second on Thursday night. In doing so, she became the first American to retain an Olympic title in an individual track event since Michael Johnson won back-to-back 400-meter golds in 1996 and 2000. Her winning time of 50.37 seconds was good for third in Wednesday’s second 400-meter flat semifinal. The holder of seven of the 13 fastest 400-meter hurdles times ever, it has been more than five years since she last lost the distance. No one has run more beautifully since Allyson Felix.

The sport was so desperate to find a successor to Usain Bolt that it commissioned the makers of Formula 1’s Drive to Survive documentary series to help with the cause. It turns out they were looking in the wrong place all along. Whether it was because the 400m hurdles came too late in the programme or because so many of her teammates were hogging the limelight and leaving no crumbs on an almost daily basis, McLaughlin-Levron was strangely overlooked throughout the Paris Olympics. But when it comes to star power, McLaughlin-Levron put all doubts to rest on Thursday night with a piece de resistance that proved she is the face of the sport.

At an Olympics heralded as an American ovation after a disappointing showing in Tokyo, particularly on the men’s side, Thursday night’s stacked bill was full of star-studded promise, with the hottest ticket of the 11-day, 21-session meeting, with the worst seats fetching over €800 on the official resale platform. In a staggering 75 minutes, three of the four Americans favourites for gold achieved what they wanted. In addition to Sydney’s stunning win, Tara Davis Woodhall won the long jump, pulling off a victory lap as James Brown’s Living in America played, while three-time world champion Grant Holloway blew away the field in the 110m hurdles to claim a long-awaited Olympic gold medal. The one who didn’t make it was Noah Lyles, who managed to take bronze despite a Covid diagnosis that immediately dwarfed everything else on the track.

But in a way, the night was all about McLaughlin Levrone, who has come a long way since making her Olympic debut in Rio as the youngest American athlete in more than four decades. She has since admitted that she intentionally messed up the 400-meter hurdles semifinal at Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium that year out of sheer anxiety and fear of failure. These days? If she’s not already the most dominant athlete in the world, she’s certainly on the shortlist. The scary thing is, no one can say where this is all going with the Olympics coming to her home country in four years.

One of the most enigmatic stars in any sport, McLaughlin-Leverone has continually wowed the world with her wide range of abilities. She has competed in five different events this year—the 100m and 400m hurdles, the 200m and 400m flat, and the 4x100m relay—and has set world-class times in all of them. Shortly before the U.S. Olympic trials, she confirmed that she would focus on defending her gold medal in the 400m hurdles, an event she calls her “first love.”

For now, McLaughlin-Levrone will enjoy Thursday’s win and the chance to win a fourth Olympic gold medal in the 4x400m relay.

“We put in the effort, the heart was there. That’s all I can ask for,” she said.