Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to end season with rare 200m-400m double at Diamond League Final
The Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record holder has received an invitation to run in the flat distances in her only post-Games races of the year.
Athletics
She may be queen of the women's 400m hurdles, but Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will close her international track and field season in unusual style later this month.
The American, who lowered her one-lap hurdles world record to a scarcely believable 50.37 seconds (pending ratification) in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games final, is set to compete in a flat double at the season-ending Diamond League Final, the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels from 13-14 September.
Despite not having run in a Diamond League meet this year, organisers have extended wildcard invitations to McLaughlin-Levrone to compete in Brussels, where she will run in the 400m flat on Friday 13 September before taking part in the half-lap 200m race the following day.
It will be just the 25-year-old's second 400m flat and third 200m race of the year, although McLaughlin-Levrone also ran on Team USA's gold-medal-winning women's 4x400m relay team at the Stade de France.
The two races will also be her only post-Olympics races this season.
McLaughlin-Levrone has competed over the 400m flat with moderate success in recent years, with her 48.74 personal best set at the USATF Outdoor National Championships in 2023 ranking her as the 12th-fastest woman all-time in the event.
However, the 200m is a rarer race for the American. Before her two races this year, which include her personal best 22.07, she last ran a competitive half-lap race in 2018, when she was still in college. The 22.07, set at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix, ties her for 54th all time over the distance.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's career results in 200m and 400m
What are Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's most recent competitive outings over 200m and 400m?
Neither race is her main event, although she has run a few 400m flats in recent years.
Here are her last five finals results in each event.
Women's 200m:
- 18 May 2024 - USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix, Los Angeles - 22.07 (-0.3m/s), 1st place
- 4 May 2024 - Occidental Invitational, Los Angeles - 22.38 (+2.9m/s*), 1st place
- 29 March 2018 - Florida Relays, Gainsville - 22.39 (+1.5m/s), 1st place
- 3 June 2017 - Egg Harbor City, New Jersey - 22.96 (0.0m/s), 1st place
- 27 May 2017 - Egg Harbor City, New Jersey - 23.19 (no wind indicated), 1st place
Women's 400m:
- 9 June 2024 - USATF New York City Grand Prix, New York - 48.75, 1st place
- 8 July 2023 - USATF Outdoor Championships, Eugene - 48.74, 1st place (49.60 in semi-finals and 49.79 in heats)
- 24 June 2023 - USATF New York City Grand Prix, New York - 49.51, 1st place
- 9 June 2023 - Meeting de Paris Diamond League, Paris - 49.71, 2nd place
- 18 May 2019 - Shanghai Diamond League, Shanghai - 50.78, 2nd place