By Chris Chavez
May 19, 2023
Sydney McLaughlin- Levrone, 400m hurdles world record holder and reigning World and Olympic champion, intends to contest the 400 meters at the upcoming U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships in July, coach Bobby Kersee told the Orange County Register.
Here's what you need to know:
– As the defending champ, McLaughlin-Levrone has a bye into the 400m hurdles at the World Championships in August.
– Kersee says if McLaughlin-Levrone qualifies for the 400m, she will then decide between competing in the flat 400m and the 400m hurdles at Worlds. The schedule doesn't allow for a 400m-400m hurdles double due to the timing of the heats and semifinals.
– McLaughlin-Levrone withdrew from the LA Grand Prix in Los Angeles next weekend due to a minor hamstring injury.
What they are saying:
– Kersee also mentioned that McLaughlin-Levrone may participate in both the mixed-gender 4x400m and women's 4x400m relays at the World Championships, in addition to whichever individual event she ultimately winds up in. She would try to become the first woman to come away from a World Championship with three medals since Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce did it in 2013. No American woman has done it since Allyson Felix in 2007, according to NBC.
– There is a lot of anticipation surrounding McLaughlin-Levrone’s foray into the 400m. After her impressive performance at last year's World Championships, where she shattered the 400m hurdles world record and ran a 47.91 split in the 4x400m relay, the public discourse has shifted to whether she could surpass Marita Koch's record (47.60), or even break the 50-second barrier in the hurdles.
– Kersee believes she has the potential to accomplish both. He told the OC Register, “She’s at 50-point in the 400 hurdles so she has the speed, the endurance and now a good amount of aerobic base work. I just think that she has the natural ability to run under 48 seconds.” If anyone is a good judge of high-level potential, it’s the legendary coach whose decades-long record of success includes sprinters like Florence Griffith-Joyner, Natasha Hastings, and Allyson Felix.
Backstory:
– McLaughlin-Levrone has never raced the flat 400m at a top-level championship but recorded the second-fastest 400m split in the women's 4x400m relay at the last World Championships.
– McLaughlin-Levrone’s personal best is still 50.07 from March 2018. She has not raced an open 400 meter race since April 2021 when she ran 51.16 in an early-season meet.
What happens next:
– No announcement has been made about whether McLaughlin-Levrone will race before the U.S. Championships.
What we think:
It’s been a tad disappointing that Kersee has not allowed McLaughlin-Levrone to race much this season. She fully trusts him as a coach and her resumé under his direction speaks for itself. She’s always lights-out on championship stages, but has been notably absent from many “regular season” meets, including the Diamond League circuit. She has not raced a Diamond League race since the 2019 Zurich Diamond League final.
At the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (a meet presented by her sponsor) in February, McLaughlin-Levrone was asked about racing more in 2023. “We’ve always been, like, a little more refined in what we choose to do,” she said. "But I think that after last year, we kind of figured out our rhythm of things and now we’ll be able to branch out a little bit more."
(UPDATE on May 22: McLaughlin will run the 400m at the Paris Diamond League meet on June 9 ahead of the U.S. Outdoor Championships.)
If McLaughlin-Levrone chooses to go the 400m route, she’d surely be considered a contender for a medal. She’s one of the most talented athletes of our generation. And, as Kyle Merber wrote a few weeks ago, the women’s 400m is wide open right now. Reigning world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo is coming back from pregnancy and multiple women have already run in the 49/50-second range – including fellow American and current world leader Britton Wilson (49.13) - although Wilson, too, may opt for the hurdles. Another reason why McLaughlin-Levrone’s scratch from the LA Grand Prix is upsetting is that her performance would have painted a clearer picture of where she’d rank in the 400m, since she would have faced World and Olympic silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic. (Editor's Note: We will now get this showdown at the Paris Diamond League.)
A shift to the 400m would also make the 400m hurdles picture a bit more interesting, with Femke Bol slotting into her place as the gold medal favorite. With an Olympic bronze and a world championship silver medal to her name, gold is all that’s missing from Bol’s global championship set. She has yet to open up her outdoor season but she electrified fans when she ran 49.26 for the indoor 400m and then came away with the European titles in the 400m and 4x400m relay. Dalilah Muhammad, who had an injury-shortened buildup ahead of last year’s World Championships, can’t be discounted either, if she is back to full health.
Whichever event McLaughlin-Levrone chooses, I’d like for Wilson to take her place in the other. Wilson’s starting to look like a gold medal threat in either the 400m or 400m hurdles, and her path to victory includes one less – very substantial – obstacle if she isn’t facing McLaughlin-Levrone in the final.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
