Sydney McLaughlin

McLaughlin, 22, became the second-youngest track and field athlete in history to own the three biggest accolades in an individual event — Olympic gold, world ...

Both the U.S. men’s and women’s 4x100m relays advanced to Saturday’s finals. Kara Winger extended a historic meet for U.S. women’s throwers, becoming the first American to win a world championships medal in the women’s javelin. Winger, a 36-year-old who plans to retire after this season, moved from fifth to second on her sixth and final throw. American Olympic gold medalist Athing Mu led the qualifiers into Sunday’s 800m final. “This was more than I ever could have imagined,” said Winger, who came back from ACL tear surgeries in 2012 and 2020 and 2015 left shoulder surgery. Norman, the world’s fastest 400m runner in the last Olympic cycle yet fifth in Tokyo, earned his first individual global medal. Then, perhaps, a switch to the flat 400m. “A lot of relief right now,” Norman said. Anything under 51 was a win for us.” I follow what he says.” Only Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele held all three at a younger age. “It could be [the flat 400m]. Anything is possible.

American runner Sydney McLaughlin broke her own 400-meter hurdles world record to take gold on Friday night at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, ...

"She was so far in front at the end, so I was always doubting if I really had a good race because it felt very good. "The level in the 400m hurdles is certainly improving. But as a competitor, you always want more." "I executed the race the way Bobby (Kersee, her coach) wanted me to. Then I saw the time and I was like, 'Wow.' It is amazing to be a part of it and to come out second in such a race," Bol added. "The time is absolutely amazing and the sport is getting faster and faster," she said after the race, according to the World Athletics website

After a drastic technique change, the 22-year-old dropped her 400-meter hurdles time to a blazing 50.68 at the world championships, a feat so remarkable ...

She even admitted that during her romp through the 400-meter hurdles she could feel the lactic acid in her legs. “She’s gonna be like FloJo,” Joyner says, comparing McLaughlin to his late and legendary wife. “She can definitely crossover,” she says. By the final turn, a semi-truck could have fit between her and her nearest competitor. “There’s never been a weapon as strong as she is,” he says. From 1984 to 2020, he coached at least one gold medal-winning athlete, and that’s just in the Olympics. But his mission, to beat Moses, meant he still wanted more. He didn’t share technical details with his wife, and Al’s sister, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, but as one of the greatest-ever women athletes, she understood McLaughlin’s ceiling: becoming the face of U.S. track and field. “Crazy people run this race,” Moses says, citing the combination of pure speed, different movements and strategy. At the start, for instance; on each turn; and with each hurdle, both on jumping and landing. “Because you have a lot of men that can’t even run a 50.6 with no hurdles.” Until 2019, no woman hurdler had run faster than 52.34. In the three years since, two Americans—McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad—have topped that mark six times. There’s a warm-up area right next to the stadium, and he stood there, watching Sydney McLaughlin, herself a star American hurdler and best in this event since, well, since him.

A closer look at Sydney McLaughlin's jaw-dropping record-breaking performance Friday night in the 400-meter hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in ...

Dalilah Muhammad, the previous world record holder and an Olympic and world champion, was left in the dust in Friday’s race, finishing a distant third. Two of the most formidable records were set during the Cold War era by East Germany’s Marita Koch and Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvilova. In 1985, Koch set a record in the 400-meter dash of 47.60 that no one has come close to challenging. McLaughlin is a sensation, the Secretariat of track and field. In 1983, Kratochvilova set a record in the 800-meter run of 1:53.28 that also has been unapproachable. Point values are assigned to every possible time in the running events and to every possible mark in the field events. The Netherlands’ Femke Bol, a graceful 6-foot tall strider and history’s third-fastest ever, finished second with a time of 52.27 — a time that would’ve been considered sensational 13 months ago. And she didn’t just set a world record; she set one from decades in the future. Let’s look at it another way: McLaughlin would’ve beaten two women in Friday’s 400-meter dash final at the world championships — and they didn’t have hurdles to clear. She didn’t just win the 400 hurdles at the world championships; she set a world record. On Friday she became the first to break 51 seconds and she crushed it. Track and field has a points system so that performances in one event can be compared to performances in other events. We just know there’s more to push and there’s more to be taken off of that.”

Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin of the United States poses by a sign after winning the final of the women's 400-meter hurdles at the World Athletics ...

Then, I saw the time and I thought, 'Wow, that explains a lot.'" So, the sky's the limit for sure." And then came McLaughlin. She and Muhammad upped the U.S. medals total to 26 through eight days. "At some point, we could do maybe the 4, or maybe the 100 hurdles. (51.41). Now, this — a 1.4% improvement on a four-week-old record and a maiden voyage into times in the 50s. Muhammad — into a one-woman show for the time being. On a clear, perfect, 72-degree night at Hayward Stadium, McLaughlin left Bol and Muhammad behind by the 150-meter mark. "And after that race, I think 49 is possible." I think we're pushing the boundaries of the sport, especially in our event." This marked the fourth straight major race in which she's bettered the mark. On Friday, she ran the 400-meter hurdles at world championships in 50.68 seconds. She shattered her old mark by 0.73 seconds, a ridiculous number for a race of this distance and an amount of time that, in the world before McLaughlin, it had taken 33 years to trim.

Sydney McLauglin was a broken woman after winning gold at Tokyo. She rebuilt herself through faith in god and hard toil to take the gold in a dreamy run at ...

But in the sport, at the age of 21, to be a two time Olympian and a world record holder, I would just like a little bit of respect. She didn’t like staying at the Games Village and she would be in her room alone and wonder what she was doing there. She didn’t want to run but her parents promised a candy and she won that 100m. “There’s so many things I just don’t understand about the world, about our sport, about our culture. She decided to change her mindset, just like she did when she was 7 and ran in a school race for a chocolate bar. That uneasiness stayed through her at the Rio Olympics where she would be eliminated in the semifinals. The toxicity of fame is perhaps one of the reasons she has turned to faith in a big way. “Everybody was warming up and I thought I can’t do it.” She was 16. She would start her run but, in a blink, realise Dalilah Muhammad, who won the bronze on Saturday, was too far out. “Not even three days ago I literally achieved one of my life’s dreams of breaking the world record, and I’m going to be honest, a lot of the people around me did not respond how I thought they would … I felt like the people I thought would be the most excited for me literally almost didn’t even care. Absurdly, she thinks the best is yet to come. I pray for healing and I really hope that people can, like, say that they don’t have to live in this world of just hate.