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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol's rivalry in the 400m hurdles received acclaim from retired athlete, Trey Hardee. The former combined event specialist highlighted that McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol have taken the sport to higher levels with their dominance on the track.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has faced Femke Bol in three major events, the 2022 World Championships and the 2021 and 2024 Olympic editions, and defeated the Dutch in all three. At the 2024 Games, the American broke the world record for the sixth time in the 400m hurdles, leaving Bol in bronze with 52.15s.
The latter broke the European record at the Resisprint International, becoming the second athlete after McLaughlin-Levrone to go below 51s. With just inches away to match the four-time Olympic gold medalist's personal best time, Bol is continuing to make waves in 2025. She recently broke the meet record at the Rabat Diamond League, clocking 52.4s. On the other hand, McLaughlin-Levrone has been bagging titles at the Grand Slam Track meet, vying for his seventh world record.
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Amid the competitive schedule, the hurdlers received a shout-out from retired combined events specialist, Trey Hardee. According to him, neither Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone nor Femke Bol can get to their desired places without each other, and it's their rivalry and will to be better than the other that's taking the sport to new highs.
"It takes two huge forces to make mountains, to raise the level of everything. And I think Sydney doesn’t get where she is without Femke, and Femke doesn’t get where she is without Sydney. It’s these two immovable objects that are colliding that just press the sport higher and lift everything up,” said Trey Hardee.
Bol was the 400m hurdles champion at the 2023 World Championships in the absence of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who sat out most of the season due to injury.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone confirmed her participation in the short hurdles at the Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the Slam Champion's honor in the first GST stop in Jamaica. She repeated her feat at the Miami stop and revealed that the world would witness her compete in the 100m hurdles and 100m flat in Philadelphia on May 31, 2025.
In an interview, she shared her plans for improving her hurdle technique that would hopefully give her a personal best time.
"If we are actually gonna go to the short hurdles, definitely wanna work on my hurdle technique for sure and those girls are running really fast, so I would love to go out there, challenge myself. I would love to hopefully PR and challenge myself in the one which would just help me with my sprint mechanics, help me with my hurdle technique and yeah just put myself in a different position than I'm used to," she said.
The world record holder competed in the 100m hurdles in May 2024 but never ran a 100m feat professionally.
