3 world records broken in Athletics at Paris Olympics 2024 ft. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 400m Hurdles

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Aug 13, 2024 06:30 GMT

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of the few athletes who walk the talk. At the Paris Olympics 2024, the question wasn't whether the American hurdler would break her own world record, but by how much. The answer was 0.28 seconds.

McLaughlin-Levrone also set a new Olympic record in Paris. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, she broke her own world record of 51.90s by clocking 51.46s in the women's 400m hurdles finals.

Here are the three athletics world records that were broken in Paris.

World records broken in athletics at Paris Olympics 2024

#3) USA Mixed 4x400m Relay Team

Kaylyn Brown of Team USA in action during the mixed 4x400m relay heats at the Paris Olympics [Image Source: Getty]

Before Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone even qualified for the semifinals, USA's mixed 4x400m relay team had already registered a world record in track and field at the Paris Olympics 2024.

On August 2, Team USA, comprising Shamier Little, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, and Kaylyn Brown, broke the world record of 3:08.80 in the preliminary round itself. USA topped their heats with 3:07.41 to qualify for the finals in style.

Unfortunately, the same brilliance couldn't be repeated in the finals. Femke Bol of the Netherlands edged out USA's Kaylyn Brown in the last leg of the mixed 4x400m relay to win the Olympic gold medal with 3:07.43. Team USA finished with 3:07.74.

Interestingly, the Netherlands missed the USA's world record (set a day prior) by just 0.02 seconds.

#2) Armand Duplantis

Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis reacts after breaking his own world record in the men's pole vault final at the Paris Olympics 2024 [Image Source: Getty]

Like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, this America-born Swedish pole vaulter breaks world records like a child's play. In April 2017, Armand Duplantis broke the junior world record by jumping to a height of 5.9m.

Although he did not break any records at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Duplantis won the gold medal by jumping 6.02m.

In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, Armand Duplantis broke his own record multiple times. The 24-year-old pole vaulter broke his own world record for the ninth time when he jumped 6.25m in the finals in Paris.

#1) Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone after breaking the world record in women's 400m hurdles finals at the Paris Olympics 2024

Before 2019, not many knew who Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was, or what she aimed to do. She won the Junior World Championships in 2015 but was eliminated in the semifinals of the women's 400m hurdles at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

However, with a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in women's 400m hurdles and a gold medal at the 2019 Diamond League, the American proved herself. At the trials held before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the 18-year-old world record of 52.34 seconds, set by Yuliya Pechenkina of Russia, as she clocked 51.9 seconds.

The 25-year-old has broken her own record multiple times, including the US Olympic Trials held before the Paris Olympics, where she clocked 50.65 seconds to secure a ticket to Paris. McLaughlin-Levrone went a notch further in the finals when she edged out Anna Cockrell of the USA and Femke Bol of the Netherlands to win the race with a new world record of 50.37 seconds.