Penguin
Footballguy
EUGENE, Ore. -- In the hurdles world before Sydney McLaughlin, it took years to shave fractions of seconds off records, and winning races didn't always mean rewriting history.
This once-in-a-lifetime athlete is obliterating that mindset as quickly as she's destroying the records she sets again and again.
For the fourth time in 13 months, the 22-year-old McLaughlin set the world record. On Friday, she ran the 400-meter hurdles at world championships in 50.68 seconds. She shattered her old mark by 0.73 seconds, a ridiculous number for a race of this distance and an amount of time that, in the world before McLaughlin, it had taken 33 years to trim.
The 400-hurdles record of 52.34, held by Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia, had sat on the books for 16 years when Muhammad, not McLaughlin, lowered it to 52.20 at U.S. championships in Iowa in 2019.
Back then, Muhammad's coach, Boogie Johnson, said there had long been the thought that the Russian's record seemed "a little soft" and ripe for a takeover. Muhammad broke it again, at 52.16, at world championships in 2019.
That was a race McLaughlin lost by a mere 0.07, and one that set her about making changes.
Since connecting with coach Bobby Kersee, she has broken the record at last year's Olympic trials (51.90), the Olympics (51.46) and nationals last month (51.41). Now, this -- a 1.4% improvement on a four-week-old record and a maiden voyage into times in the 50s.
"I definitely thought it was possible,'' Muhammad said. "And after that race, I think 49 is possible.''
McLaughlin has set three of her four records on this very track at Hayward Field. She has turned what used to be the best one-on-one showdown in track -- her vs. Muhammad -- into a one-woman show for the time being.
This once-in-a-lifetime athlete is obliterating that mindset as quickly as she's destroying the records she sets again and again.
For the fourth time in 13 months, the 22-year-old McLaughlin set the world record. On Friday, she ran the 400-meter hurdles at world championships in 50.68 seconds. She shattered her old mark by 0.73 seconds, a ridiculous number for a race of this distance and an amount of time that, in the world before McLaughlin, it had taken 33 years to trim.
The 400-hurdles record of 52.34, held by Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia, had sat on the books for 16 years when Muhammad, not McLaughlin, lowered it to 52.20 at U.S. championships in Iowa in 2019.
Back then, Muhammad's coach, Boogie Johnson, said there had long been the thought that the Russian's record seemed "a little soft" and ripe for a takeover. Muhammad broke it again, at 52.16, at world championships in 2019.
That was a race McLaughlin lost by a mere 0.07, and one that set her about making changes.
Since connecting with coach Bobby Kersee, she has broken the record at last year's Olympic trials (51.90), the Olympics (51.46) and nationals last month (51.41). Now, this -- a 1.4% improvement on a four-week-old record and a maiden voyage into times in the 50s.
"I definitely thought it was possible,'' Muhammad said. "And after that race, I think 49 is possible.''
McLaughlin has set three of her four records on this very track at Hayward Field. She has turned what used to be the best one-on-one showdown in track -- her vs. Muhammad -- into a one-woman show for the time being.
