The American, who celebrated her 25th birthday on 7 August, ran a blisteringly fast race to victory the Olympic Games Paris 2024 women’s 400m hurdles gold medal in a new world record time of 50.37 seconds.
It marked the fifth time the American had lowered her own world record, and she turn out to be the first woman to go back-to-back at the Olympics in the event since it made its debut at Los Angeles 1984.
“Grateful to God for this opportunity, grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this,” she said after her victory. “It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine.”
Consuming made her Olympic debut in Rio 2016 at 17 and winning gold in front of an empty stadium at Tokyo 2020, she said Thursday (8 August) was like being on a whole new stage: “I think this was my first real Olympics,” she said. “And I’m grateful for that in its fullness.”
The American annoying out of the blocks, chasing down her biggest rival, the Netherlands’ Fenke Bol , in the lane outside of her before building a sizeable lead with over 100m to go.
As McLaughlin-Levrone raced down the finishing straight, with the roars of the Stade de France crowd after her, the thousands in the stands knew they were witnessing something special.
The U.S. superstar was alone, her contestants far behind her. And for the seconds it took before she crossed the finish line, you got the impression she was chasing history as much as another Olympic title.
“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles,” continued McLaughlin-Levrone. “Just a lot of hard work put in this year. I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way around.”
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