“I often think back to stuttering on that 8th hurdle” – When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up about the mistakes she made in her career
Four-time Olympic medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone once shared that she made a mistake during a hurdling event and expressed her desire to never repeat it in the future. She is now a world record holder in the distance.
The incident took place during the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, where the Dunellen native was up against her then-rival and the four-time Olympic and World champion Dalilah Muhammad, with the 400m hurdles title on the line.
As the gun fired, the two approached the finish line; however, the then-20-year-old McLaughlin-Levrone experienced a little stutter at the eighth hurdle that gave a slight advantage to Muhammad.
In the end, Muhammad won the race in 52.16 seconds, while McLaughlin-Levrone had to settle for a silver with a time of 52.23 seconds.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone discussed the incident during a conversation with Citius Mag in March 2023 and mentioned that she was not sure whether overcoming that moment would have changed the result of the race, but it certainly prompted her to work on her hurdling skills.
“I often think back to Doha 2019 and just stuttering on that eighth hurdle.
Would it have made the difference? I don’t know, but I think that’s one of those things that encouraged me to want to work on my hurdling skills and work on my step patterns and all those things,” she stated.
“You know, if I could have gone back and changed it, I can’t say that it would have made a difference, but it’s one of those things I’ll never know, and I’m going to use that as motivation in the future to hopefully not do it again,” the American runner added [10:30 onwards].
