“Year 2022 belongs to Sydney” – Fans react to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone winning World Athlete of the Year

USA's star hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, won the 2022 World Athlete of the Year award along with US-born Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis. The 23-year old has been a staple name in hurdling events and has, off-late, become the favorite to snatch gold in every competition she attends.

The official World Athletics Twitter account announced her win on Monday, 5th December, 2022. Sydney can be seen in the video shattering the 400-meter hurdles world record with a time of 50.68 seconds at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene.

The commentator can be heard saying - "We are watching a once-in-a-generation athlete, performing at the peak of her powers." These are powerful words to describe a powerful star!

Ecstatic with her own performance and achievement, McLaughlin-Levrone stated:

"I would describe 2022 for myself by just saying: Incredible"

After the announcement of her Athlete of the Year win, many fans took to Twitter to express their joy and excitement. Here is a collection of some of them:

While most fans were busy congratulating Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, one took it upon herself to claim the year 2022 belonged to the American athlete.

Biggest challengers of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for the award this year

With her performance this year, it is hard to dispute the fact that she is deserving of the award. However, many athletes had a phenomenal year, including Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

The champion sprinter from the Caribbean nation won the 100-meter sprint at the 2022 World Championships and got two second-place finishes, in the 200-meter sprint and the 400x100-meter relay.

A fan was quick to point out that while they would have loved the Jamaican to win, they cannot dispute Sydney winning the award.

However, not everyone in the world of Twitter was happy with the result! Some believed a few athletes had a better year than Sydney and were more deserving of the award.

A user on the platform congratulated Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on the win, but couldn't wrap their head around how she won at the cost of Kenya's Faith Kipyegon.

The middle-distance runner from Africa had a great 2022, where she won two individual golds in the 1500-meter run, at the Diamond League and the World Championships. Another user was quick to reply that Sydney had set two world records this year.

Probably, the only other athlete who comes to mind when thinking of this award is Nigerian hurdler Tobi Amusan. In 2022, she won two gold medals at the African Championships, two golds at the Commonwealth Games (100m hurdles and 4x100m relay), and finished the World Championships and the Diamond League with one gold each, in the 100m hurdles. Users on Twitter were quick to point this out too.

There surely were many worthy athletes competing for the award this year. However, the fact remains that Sydney is one of them. In what was most probably a very close race, she has come out on top and secured the award.

With her domination of the 400-meter hurdles and her solid performances in team USA's 400-meter relay team, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone looks ready to take at least two gold medals in Paris 2024!