Sydney McLaughlin

Her parents met as students at Manhattan College; there was no women's track team when Mary arrived in 1979, so she became the manager of the men's track team.

Sydney grew up in Dunellen, New Jersey.

In addition to being successful academically, she took up running at an early age, following brother Taylor and their older sister Morgan.

When she was 14, her father said, "All of our kids are fairly talented, but (Sydney's) a little special. We saw it coming. It was just a matter of time."

She was the youngest athlete to make the American Olympic track and field team since Carol Lewis and Denean Howard qualified for the boycotted Moscow Olympics in 1980.

At the Games, she placed fifth in her semi-final heat, failing to advance to the finals.

She was part of an American record setting quartet that broke the indoor distance medley relay world record with a time of 10:40.31, set at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on January 28 at Boston's Reggie Lewis Center.

The splits for the four legs were: 3:18.40 (1200 m) by Emma Coburn, 52.32 (400 m) by McLaughlin, 2:01.92 (800 m) by Brenda Martinez, and 4:27.66 (1600 m) by Jenny Simpson.

Later that indoor season on March 12, McLaughlin lowered her own national 400-meter record to a 51.61 s at the New Balance Nationals in New York City.

He was a semi-finalist in the 400 meters at the 1984 Olympic Trials.

Her mother, Mary Neumeister McLaughlin, was a 2:12 half-miler at Cardinal O'Hara High School in Tonawanda, New York, where she ran on the boys' team.

Sydney Michelle McLaughlin-Levrone (born August 7, 1999) is an American hurdler and sprinter who competes in the 400 meters hurdles.

Sydney McLaughlin was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on August 7, 1999.

Her father, Willie McLaughlin, is a member of the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame as a three-time All-American.

In April, McLaughlin opened her outdoor season by breaking the 300 m hurdles national high school record at the Arcadia Invitational, running 38.90 s. The record was previously held by Lashinda Demus who achieved 39.98 s in 2001.

At the national junior championships in 2014, McLaughlin placed a close second behind Shamier Little in the 400-meter hurdles; her time of 55.63 s was a national high school freshman record and a world age-14 best.

She would have qualified to represent the United States at the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, but was a year too young to be eligible.

McLaughlin also set a world age group best of 13.34 s in the 100-meter hurdles over 76.2 cm (2 ft 6 in) hurdles that summer.

As a 15-year-old, McLaughlin was the 2015 World youth champion.

In 2015, she improved her 400-meter hurdles best to 55.28 s at the national youth trials; the time was an age 15 world best, and ranked second on the all-time world youth list behind Leslie Maxie's world youth best (and national high school record) of 55.20 s set in 1984.

She qualified for the World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, where she won gold in 55.94 s; she finished the year as the world youth and junior leader in the event.

McLaughlin won the 400-meter hurdles in 54.46 s at the New Balance national outdoor high school championships; the time broke Maxie's prep record and world youth best, as well as Lashinda Demus's American junior record of 54.70 s. In addition, she ran on Union Catholic's team in the Swedish medley relay, running a fast 50.93 s split for 400 meters as the team set a new high school record of 2:07.99.

She won the USATF junior championship in 54.54 s the following week; in recognition of her accomplishments, she was named Gatorade National Girls Athlete of the Year.

McLaughlin placed third in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.15 s at the US Olympic Trials, setting a new world youth best and world junior record and qualifying for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro before her senior year in high school.

In 2016, she was the youngest athlete since 1980 to qualify for the U.S. Olympic track team, having placed third at the U.S. Olympic Trials, with the current world under-18 best of 54.15 seconds, then also the world U20 record.

Her older brother, Taylor, ran for the University of Michigan, and won silver in the 400 meter hurdles at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships.

He and Sydney both qualified for the 2016 US Olympic team.

Her younger brother, Ryan, took after his older siblings as a track stand-out at Union Catholic.

He was the fifth member of the family to win a New Jersey county track title.

She is a member of the class of 2017 at Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, where she was the first two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Track & Field.

Her older sister, Morgan, ran for St. Peter's University.

She holds the current world U20 record of 53.60 seconds, having achieved a junior personal best of 52.75 s (not ratified), with both marks set in 2018.

Only two other women also broke the 52-second barrier and McLaughlin-Levrone is the only one who broke the 51-second barrier, leaving her with nearly one second advantage on the world all-time list, the largest current difference between the world record and the next best performer in said track event.

She holds six out of the nine fastest times on this list.

She won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships.

At all three competitions, she also took gold as part of a women's 4 × 400 m relay team.

She was the 2019 Diamond League champion.

In 2022, McLaughlin-Levrone was voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.

She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion with the Games record, and 2022 World champion with a world record time of 50.68 seconds.

Setting four world records during 13 months, she was the first woman to break the 52-second (June 2021) and 51-second (July 2022) barriers in the 400 m hurdles.