Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone announces big personal news

McLaughlin-Levrone is perhaps the single biggest star in women’s track and field today, competing in both the 400-meter hurdles and the flat 400. She burst onto the global scene back in 2016 as one of the youngest Olympians ever at the time and has since earned a reputation as the greatest female 400-meter hurdler of all-time.

Now a four-time Olympic gold medalist (including two individual golds) and a five-time World Championships gold medalist (including two more individual golds), McLaughlin-Levrone holds the world record for the fastest women’s 400m hurdles time ever (50.37). She also owns seven of the top 12 fastest times ever, including all of the top three.

In 2025, McLaughlin-Levrone turned her focus to the flat 400 and dominated there as well. During the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, McLaughlin-Levrone won gold by running the second-fastest women’s flat 400 time ever (47.78, trailing only the 47.60 achieved by East Germany’s Marita Koch back in 1985). Perhaps even more impressive was that McLaughlin-Levrone, who also set a championship record with her time of 47.78, prevailed in the race over the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino and Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser, two extremely decorated and lifelong 400m specialists.

As for the personal life of McLaughlin-Levrone, 26, she married her husband Levrone, 30, in 2022. Levrone is a former NFL wide receiver who spent time with the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars but never actually appeared in an NFL game.

2026 on the track-and-field schedule is shaping up to be a much lighter year as there are no major outdoor global athletics championships set to take place. As such, McLaughlin-Levrone will have plenty of time to focus on motherhood and then get back to her peak form in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif.