By David Melly
September 19, 2025
We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone breaking records and standing atop podiums. That’s nothing new.
But usually there are ten hurdles standing in between the track superstar and another epic performance. This time around, McLaughlin-Levrone, the two-time Olympic champ and reigning world record holder in the 400m hurdles, took the harder path to gold. She opted instead for the flat 400m, turning a two-way battle between two athletes at the height of their powers, Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser, into a triple tango.
Except, by the time SML got to Tokyo, it wasn’t much of a competition after all. The first time McLaughlin-Levrone raced Paulino, at the Paris Diamond League in 2023, Paulino had gotten the better of the American, who was still figuring out the cadence and pacing of a 400-meter race with no rhythmic step pattern to rely on. Two years later, McLaughlin-Levrone has entered another class entirely — which surely she’s known for months now, but she only showed the rest of the world on Tuesday, when she shattered the American record in the semifinal.
Sydney wasn’t done, however. In Thursday’s 400m final, she faced off against Paulino and Naser who, even after her performance Tuesday, had faster PBs and a much deeper racing resume at the distance. Yet once again, a fully peaked and prepped McLaughlin-Levrone can’t be matched by anyone in the world, and she claimed her first gold medal in her new event in historic fashion, running 47.78 in the rain to become the second woman ever under 48 seconds.
47.78 is the fastest time in the world in 40 years, missing a world record by 0.18 seconds that many view with a suspicious eye given its East German, mid-1980s origin. In two races, McLaughlin-Levrone took nearly a full second off Sanya Richards-Ross’s American record that had stood for 19 years and once again redefined expectations of the possible for a second event. She dragged the athletes behind her to historic heights as well, as Paulino became the fourth woman under 48 in second in 47.98, Naser clocked the fastest third-place time ever, and the entire field broke 50 seconds.
Full results:
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will justifiably get the bulk of the headlines from this event, but it’s worth noting what a historic moment her mere presence has triggered. By choosing to shift her event focus, she created the circumstances for three of the five fastest women in history to collide in the same event, at the same time.
Marileidy Paulino, who didn’t lose a race in all of 2024, set her lifetime best. Salwa Eid Naser, the former world leader and the fastest active 400m runner prior to the final, ran her best time in six years. Paulino and Naser also join world record holder Marita Koch as the only women in history to run under 48.2 on multiple occasions, and the Tokyo final is the first time ever two women have broken 48 seconds in the same race. Naser and Paulino deserve as much credit as McLaughlin-Levrone for elevating the event to levels not seen in decades.
Lane placement played a factor here as McLaughlin-Levrone had both rivals on her outside, giving her two targets to chase. And Paulino’s lactic-defying strength down the homestretch pushed Sydney all the way to the line in a way that doesn’t happen over hurdles, even with Femke Bol in the race. For a few meters, we even saw something extremely rare — an athlete closing a gap on McLaughlin-Levrone in the final meters — but ultimately it did come down to Sydney against the clock.
Over the next several championships, it will be in World Athletics’s best interest to recreate these circumstances or even craft a schedule where McLaughlin-Levrone can take on the 400m hurdles and the flat 400m in the same championships. There are increasingly few barriers left for her to break or boxes to check off, but for the good of the sport, we have to do everything we can to keep her aiming for new heights.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
