Will new hurdle heights be used after Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record at Paris Olympics? All about World Athletics' plan

By Agnijeeta Majumder

Modified Aug 09, 2024 20:05 GMT

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone lowered her 400m hurdles world record time for the sixth time at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She clocked 50.37s to clinch the gold.

The American's feat prompted World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, to think about raising the height of the hurdles. McLaughlin-Levrone became the first track athlete to break the world record four times in the same event and break four world records within 13 months.

She's also the first woman to clock sub-52s and sub-51s in the 400m hurdles. McLaughlin-Levrone also holds the U20 world record of 53.60s and the world's best U18 400m hurdles time of 54.15s. At the 2021 US Olympic Trials, she triumphed over reigning champion Dalilah Muhammad in 51.90s and achieved her first world record time. At the Tokyo Olympics finals, McLaughlin-Levrone broke it for the second time after clocking 51.46s to win the gold.

In 2022, she broke her record for the third and fourth time at the USATF Championships and World Championships respectively. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clocked 50.65s at the 2024 Olympic Trials and 50.37s at the Paris Olympics to achieve her fifth and sixth record times. This streak has seemingly prompted Sebastian Coe to question raising the height of the hurdles.

The women's hurdles are 76.2cm each and Coe felt the athletes are not 'breaking their form very much'.

"There’s probably a case now for looking at the height of the hurdles because these guys don’t really look like they are breaking their form very much. That’s a mixture of good hurdling and probably the height," he said (via Athletics Weekly).

“The innovation teams will be looking at all sorts of things. It’s very much a personal view, I’ve spoken to a couple of 400m hurdlers and they think that, actually, it’s probably something we might want to look at,” Coe added.

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on having her family witness her win at the Paris Olympics: "It's just special to have them in the crowd"

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's debut Olympic experience in Tokyo was amid the COVID-19 pandemic so she won the gold with no family and fans to cheer her on. However, her triumph in Paris was witnessed by her family in person:

"My whole family got to be here. Especially after Tokyo [where] nobody's families were there, it's just special to have them in the crowd," she said (via Olympics.com).

"Grateful to God for this opportunity, grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this. It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine," she added after winning the gold in Paris.

McLaughlin-Levrone's world record-breaking 400m hurdles effort saw her finish atop the podium while her US counterpart Anna Cockrell took silver with 51.87s and Femke Bol of the Netherlands took bronze with 52.15s.