"I’m sure I would have passed out"- When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up about handling the nerves of competing in the Olympics as a 16-year-old

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone spoke about handling the nerves of competing at the Olympic Games as a 16-year-old. The American athlete recalled having a completely different experience while getting ready for her race in the Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium in Rio as she was steadily focussed on running her own race instead of paying attention to the other competing athletes.

McLaughlin-Levrone revealed how she always visualized an Olympic race would be different from other competitions considering the nerves of competing on such a major stage along with millions of viewers globally. However, as she stepped into the Olympic stadium for the 400m hurdles heats, she was surprised by the less amount of spectators which led her to taking a sigh of relief while making her debut in the quadrennial Games.

She spoke about her Olympic debut in detail in her book 'Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith' and revealed how a little change of mindset before the race prevented her from getting nervous. As McLaughlin-Levrone was warming up before the race, she was so focused on her performance that she did not interact with any other athlete who was competing alongside her which prevented her from getting nervous before the race.

"Well, I was so inside my own head, trying desperately to focus on the task at hand, that I didn’t interact with any of them or, frankly, get a good look at any of the other world-class athletes. If I had paid more attention to who was beside me on the track that day, I’m sure I would have passed out," she wrote.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on her first Olympic appearance

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at an IAAF meetings in Monaco - Source: Getty

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone could not qualify for the finals in the women's 400m hurdles in her debut Olympic appearance after she finished fifth in the semi-finals. She wrote about her performance in her book and expressed her disappointment as she felt that she had deliberately given up the opportunity to compete in the finals.

"Honestly, I robbed myself of an opportunity. I don't know what would have happened, but I really didn't want to find out. I left Rio with the feeling that I had left something behind. It was very hard. It's not something you want to talk about, because you don't want people to be mad at you, but it was really my own thing," she wrote.

After a lot of introspection, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone felt that she was not ready either physically and mentally to compete on such a global stage which ultimately led to the result. However, keeping an optimistic approach, she decided to learn from her shortcomings and ultimately take it as a valuable experience.