"Desperately wanted a break"- When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up on nearing burnout before biggest race of her career

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was just 16 when she made her Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In 2016, a then 16-year-old qualified for the US Olympic team in the 400m hurdles, becoming the youngest US track and field athlete to make the team since 1980.

In the five weeks between the Olympic Trials and the Rio Games, McLaughlin-Levrone experienced burnout once again, something she had faced earlier in middle school. At the age of nine, she took a two-and-a-half-year break from competitive running.

During that time, she explored other sports like soccer, basketball, and even dance. Eventually, she returned to track in middle school. After coping with earlier burnouts and making a strong comeback to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials, she found herself facing the same mental and emotional fatigue again before the 2016 Olympics. In her memoir, Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear to Faith, released in January 2024, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up about the mental and emotional toll she faced between the trials and the Olympics in 2016.

“Those five weeks between the trials and the Olympics were the closest I’d come to burnout since I asked my dad if I could step back from running. For the first time since middle school, I desperately wanted a break."

"I didn’t want to see a track or compete, especially not in the Olympics. Far from the simplicity of childhood and my dad’s image of a joyful butterfly, things were getting ever more bogged down and complicated. How could I make sense of it all? ” she writes.

The 'joyful butterfly', she referenced, ties back to something her dad used to tell her before races. While other coaches offered detailed strategies, her dad, Willie McLaughlin, will say, “Syd, be the butterfly,” inspired by Muhammad Ali’s line, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

Despite the heaviness and mental fatigue, McLaughlin-Levrone pushed through and competed in Rio. She made it to the semifinals and clocked 56.32s, finishing fifth in her heat.

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‘Grateful to her’: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone reflects on emotional moment with Dalilah Muhammad

Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin at the 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 - Source: Getty

In June 2021, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone returned to Hayward Field in Eugene, the same stadium where she had competed in the 2016 Olympic Trials. But this race was different. McLaughlin-Levrone rose to the moment. She crossed the finish line first, setting a new world record of 51.90s, breaking Dalilah Muhammad's previous record of 52.16s. Dalilah Muhammad finished close behind in 52.42s.

“As soon as I crossed the finish line, I put my hands on my head and then crouched, overcome with emotion, my hand over my mouth. Dalilah walked over to me and put her hand out to congratulate me. I shook it, grateful to her for pushing me to it. It was encouraging to have good sportsmanship, especially between women,” she wrote in her memoir.

Since 2021, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has held the world record in the women’s 400m hurdles. She has broken her record multiple times, most recently at the Paris Olympic Games, where she clocked 50.37s, shaving 0.28 seconds off her previous mark.