In typical fashion, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone defends Olympic crown with world record

From her early days running, the Jersey-born star showed her family what might be in store. Her NCAA All-American father, Willie McLaughlin, once called his daughter’s success “just a matter of time.” That time began in full force when she first stepped on an Olympic track at just 17 years old in Rio. Age has always been a part of McLaughlin-Levrone’s story — and she’s always leapt far ahead of her years.

In 2014, she was already running 55.63 seconds in the 400m hurdles, more than quick enough to represent the U.S. at the IAAF World Junior Championships. But she was a year too young to qualify. So, a year later, McLaughlin-Levrone showed and set a course record en route to easy victory.

Just year later, she was an Olympian. A decade later, she’s a two-time Olympic champion. And she owns seven of the ten fastest times ever recorded in the women’s 400m hurdles.

For McLaughlin-Levrone, running this event is mathematical. There are 10 hurdles. She takes exactly 14 steps between hurdles from the first to the seventh, then 15 steps between the last three.

“Every race is you against 10 hurdles,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “There are people who are going to push you, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t focus on the barriers in front of you.”

She coasts from hurdle to hurdle with speed that makes fans pine for her to enter in the flat races, too.

But McLaughlin-Levrone knows what works for her — and on Thursday night, it all worked scientifically and beautifully again, as she continued to copy/paste her name all over the record books.