The effortless Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s only real competition is herself

She looked almost lonely out there in the final stretch, gliding effortlessly over the last couple of hurdles and through the tape nearly 10 metres clear of her closest rivals, a woman alone. The word that comes to mind watching Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles is unbothered, existing in a realm beyond the roars of 68,000 spectators in full throat and the seven challengers in her distant wake, an embodiment of poise and technique and endurance and steely concentration. She doesn’t even look like she’s running that fast.

The 100th medal for the United States at these Paris Olympics may have been simultaneously the most and least riveting of them all. The pride of New Brunswick, who is so plainly touched by the divine unlike any New Jersey native since Whitney Houston, delivered a breathtaking Olympic performance on Thursday night, reducing a final that was billed as a blockbuster showdown with Femke Bol of the Netherlands into Secretariat at Belmont. Seeing McLaughlin-Levrone make up the stagger down the backstretch before breaking free from the generational Dutch star over the last curve and leaning through the line a yawning 1.50sec ahead of US teammate Anna Cockrell only reaffirmed what everyone deep down already knew going in: her only competition is herself.

Let’s start with the basics. McLaughlin-Levrone, who turned 25 on Wednesday, first broke the 400m hurdles world record at the 2021 US Olympic trials, shattered it at the Tokyo Games 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 race since Michael Johnson’s back-to-back 400m golds in 1996 and 2000. Her winning time of 50.37sec would have been good for third in the second 400m flat semi-final on Wednesday. The owner of seven of the 400m hurdles’ 13 fastest times ever, it’s been more than five years since she lost in the event. So smooth, so efficient, not a wasted movement. No one since Allyson Felix has run more beautifully.

The sport has been so thirsty to find a successor to Usain Bolt that it commissioned the makers of Drive to Survive to effectively mint one with a lavish docuseries. Turns out they were going about it all wrong. Whether it’s because the 400m hurdles fell so late in the program or because so many of her teammates were devouring the spotlight and leaving no crumbs on an almost nightly basis, McLaughlin-Levrone has been curiously overlooked throughout the Paris Olympics. But when it comes to star wattage, the American removed all doubt on Thursday night with a pièce de résistance that produced Bolt levels of awe and establishes her as the face of the sport.

At an Olympics touted as an American clapback after an underwhelming showing in Tokyo, especially on the men’s side, the stacked bill on Thursday night was bursting with star-spangled promise, the hottest ticket of the 11-day, 21-session meet with the worst seats fetching upwards of €800 on the official resale platform. Within a dizzying 75-minute span, three of the four Americans tipped for gold made good. In addition to Sydney’s stunning romp, Tara Davis-Woodhall won the long jump, taking a victory lap as James Brown’s Living in America blasted from the speakers, while three-time world champion Grant Halloway blew away the field in the 110m hurdles for a long-sought Olympic gold. The one who didn’t was Noah Lyles, who still managed a bronze despite a Covid diagnosis that immediately dwarfed everything else on the track.

Yet somehow the night belonged alone to McLaughlin-Levrone, who has come a long way since her Olympic debut at the Rio Games as the youngest US track athlete in more than four decades. She’s since admitted that she deliberately tanked her 400m hurdles semi-final at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos that year due to crippling anxiety and fear of failure. These days? If she’s not already the world’s most dominant athlete, she is surely on the shortlist. And the scary thing is, there’s no telling where this whole thing is headed with a home Olympics in four years’ time.

One of the most enigmatic stars in any sport, McLaughlin-Levrone has consistently teased the world with her broader potential; she has raced in five different disciplines in five events this year, the 100m and 400m hurdles, the 200m and 400m flat and the 4x100m relay, posting world-class times across the board. Only right before the US Olympic trials did she confirm, after consulting with personal coach Bobby Kersee, that she was narrowing her focus to her defense of 400m hurdles gold, the event she calls her “first love”.

McLaughlin-Levrone will likely be tapped on Friday to run in the 4x400m relay, as she did in Tokyo, giving her a strong chance to win a fourth Olympic gold at barely 25. But for now she will take heart in Thursday’s win, heartened by the knowledge that her perfect race lies ahead. “There are a few things that I feel I could have cleaned up,” she said. “But when you’re in the moment you’re not really thinking about all of that. I’m sure Bobby will have some notes for me. Overall it was a pretty good race.

“The effort was there, and the heart was there. That’s all I could ask for.”