By Saint-Denis, France
CNN
—
Team USA superstar and defending 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone put on a spectacular show at the Stade de France to retain her gold medal.
The 25-year-old, who celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, was truly in a league of her own as she smashed her own world record to take the win in 50.37 seconds.
As if that weren’t enough, McLaughlin-Levrone also becomes the first woman to ever win two Olympic 400m hurdle crowns.
She ran around the Stade de France with a US flag draped around her shoulders and a crown on her head, before celebrating with the USA’s long jump Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall.
“Grateful to God for this opportunity,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “Grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this. It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine.
“My whole family’s here. We’re going to celebrate, we’re going to enjoy this time and get ready for the relay too.
“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles, it’s amazing. 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 round.”
Anna Cockrell from the US took silver running a big personal best of 51.87.
Bronze went to the Netherlands’ Femke Bol, who was tipped as the one athlete who could potentially beat McLaughlin-Levrone, with 52.15.
The Bol vs. McLaughlin-Levrone match-up was one of the most highly anticipated of the Paris Olympics.
The pair appeared to be running neck-and-neck for much of the race, but the American pulled away as they entered the final 100 meters to stamp her authority as the world’s supreme hurdler.
Bol looked distraught as she crossed the line and covered her face with her hands.
“All you want to do in an Olympic final is to put up your best race. I screwed it up. I’m not sure where I made the mistake. I just got so much lactic acid with 300m to go. I’m not sure why, I really have no explanation,” Bol said.
“This is just a bad race. I’ll look at the positives, I’ll talk to my coach, I’ll try to enjoy the bronze.”
McLaughlin-Levrone currently looks unbeatable and will have her eyes set on becoming the first woman to go under 50 seconds.
She still has one race left at these Olympics as the USA aims to defend its 4x400m relay title, but it will take some doing to beat what was the Olympic moment of Day 13 of these Games.
