Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone explains the pressure she felt when she ran at her first Olympics at a tender age.
Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of the most accomplished track and field queens despite her relatively young age.
The 25-year-old is a four-time Olympic champion, having won the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relays at the Tokyo Olympics and, successfully defending them at the Paris version of the Games last year.
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However, the American made her first appearance at the Rio Olympics aged 16. The three-time world champion said she wasn’t prepared for that moment considering her age but that making the USA team was a turning point in her career.
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“I wasn’t prepared for that moment. And I don’t think I would have been ready to make that final. There was that part of me that even going into the semifinal and making the final was a big achievement,” she said in a podcast with Michael Johnson.
“There was that nervous part of me; 16 years old, standing over the line. For me, I was relieved that I didn’t proceed but I knew this was my dream, that one I would want to break the world and win an Olympic medal.”
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McLaughlin-Levrone further opened up how, coming from a family of athletes, helped unearth her talent. McLaughlin-Levrone has broken the 400m hurdles six times but attributed her success down to her introduction into running by her loving dad.
Explaining how she got into the sport, she said: “I come from a family of track runners. Both of my parents were track runners. My mum 800, my dad 400. My first race I was six years old.
“My dad entered me into 100m and I was like, ‘I do not want to do this’. He was like I will give you chocolate bar and I was like deal. I actually ended up winning the race. But I didn’t know my parents knew this was something different.”
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She highlighted that she struggled to fit into other sports before settling on athletics. “I did basketball, soccer, and dance. Track was always the one that stuck with me. Once I got to middle school and high school specifically that was when I realized this was something I loved to do, I think God had given me a gift to do.”
She set a world record time of 50.37 seconds at the 2024 Olympics on August 8, 2024, breaking her own old world record of 50.65 seconds.
