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American track veteran and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin weighed in on Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s decision to focus on the 400m flat instead of her signature 400m hurdles, crediting her strategic approach and suggesting she had a clear plan in place.
The Olympic 400m hurdles champion secured her spot at the upcoming World Championships after a dominant win in the women’s 400m final at the USATF National Outdoor Championships on Saturday, August 2. McLaughlin-Levrone clocked an impressive 48.90s, just 0.20s shy of the American record and finished ahead of Isabella Whittaker (49.59s) and Aaliyah Butler (49.91s), who took second and third, respectively.
On the August 4 episode of his podcast Ready Set Go, co-hosted with Rodney Green, Gatlin discussed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s decision to focus on the 400m for the 2025 World Championships, calling her move bold and calculated.
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“Look, for someone who has a mindset of a Sydney, she knows what she's doing. So, for her declaring for the 400 and not declaring for the 400 hurdles, she definitely had a couple of tricks up her sleeve that she was trying to make sure that she brought out. And she showed a glimpse of it right now with that 48.90 man, and doing it in such a grand fashion as she doing it and commanding the race, right? (17:29 onwards)
Before the race, Gatlin had predicted Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone would win, with Alexis Holmes in second, and a tight battle between Butler and Whittaker for third. While McLaughlin-Levrone did deliver the victory as predicted, Holmes finished fifth in 50.33 seconds, with Whittaker and Butler claiming the second and third spots.
Justin Gatlin on Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 400m World Championship debut
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion, will make her global debut in the 400m flat at the 2025 World Championships.
Reflecting on her transition, in the same podcast, Gatlin noted a clear shift in Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s running style. He observed that she is now sprinting at full speed, no longer running with the cadence of a hurdler, and is prepared to challenge top 400m athletes like Salwa Eid Naser and Marileidy Paulino at the World Championships.
"And when you look at her run now, she doesn't have that choppy cadence as if she's running between hurdles. She's all out sprinting now. She realizes, I got to move. I gotta go. And especially going into world championships, if she's going to have to be able to go against the likes of Naser and Paulino, and those two girls we know can sprint." (17:56)
"I think Sydney can be able to go into that and mix it up with them and go out there and handle business. I like to see it. She's a championship athlete. We know that she can get the job done," he added.
The 2025 World Athletics Championships will take place in Tokyo from September 13 to 21.
