Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone hints at competing in long jump after not taking part in the discipline since 2017

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Sep 01, 2024 05:05 GMT

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is among the greatest hurdlers of all time and has had a glittering career so far. The 25-year-old won two golds at the Paris Olympics in the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay.

Recently, the American has expressed her desire to participate in the long jump, something she hasn't done competitively for seven years.

McLaughlin-Levrone posted a video of one of her long jump attempts on her Instagram story. The Instagram story shows a younger Levrone attempting at an indoor long jump event, where she also mentioned in the comments section :

"I hope to try again someday!"

Screenshots of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's long jump and her comments [Source: Sydney McLaughlin's Instagram]

Very few people are aware that before choosing the 400m hurdles as her prime event, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was good at long jump as well. During her high school days, the Olympic champion also tried her hands at the long jump, and was quite successful at it. She has an impressive record of indoor long jump record of 6.30 m!

At the New York Eastern State Championships held in February 2017, Levrone jumped to an impressive distance of 6.29m in the outdoor long jump. Since then, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has hardly participated in any long jump event, focusing on the 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay events.

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on letting go of long jump

In an interaction with Citius Mag in March 2023, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone talked about how she loved the long jump, and why she had to ultimately let it go.

"I long jumped when I was young, and I loved it. I absolutely loved it but I went out to high school, you know, I had to stick with the running events. I didn't have time to expand into the jumps as much because there's relays and open events and all that stuff," the American said.

McLaughlin-Levrone also mentioned in jest that if not for Bob Kersee [her coach], she might have tried her hands at long jump at least once!

However, it was after she had won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles event at the Junior World Championships held in Cali in 2015 that Levrone focused more on the 400m hurdles than her favorite event, the long jump.

The New York Eastern State Championships 2017 was the last time Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone competed in this event. By that time, Levrone had taken part in the Rio Olympics as well, and this was the only time when she failed to win a medal since she was eliminated in the semifinals of the 400m hurdles event.

Since then, the Olympic champion hasn't looked back. Over the past three years, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record in the 400m hurdles several times, including her gold medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics.

She broke the world record again at the Paris Olympics when she completed the 400m hurdles in 50.37 seconds. Apart from breaking her world record, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone also contributed to USA's victory in the women's 4x400m relay event at the Paris Olympics.