In her first 400 hurdles race since 2022, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone went a world-leading 52.7 to win Friday evening at the Edwin Moses Legends Meet in Atlanta.
There is zero question that Sydney, the Tokyo 400 hurdles gold medalist, is one of the sport’s biggest stars. In Paris, she not inconceivably could win four gold medals — the 400 hurdles plus three relays, the women’s 4x4 and 4x1 and the mixed 4x4.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone winning the women’s 200 at the 2024 LA Grand Prix // Getty Images
She trains in a group based in Los Angeles with another of track’s biggest standouts, Athing Mu, the Tokyo women’s 800 winner. Their coach, Bobby Kersee, is one of the sport’s most prominent names.
Speaking generally, track and field needs — almost everyone rooting for the sport to do better agrees on this — to matter more, especially among the key 18- to 34-year-old demographic. The May 25 Prefontaine Classic, the biggest one-day meet in the United States, drew 1.17 million viewers overall but only 73,000 in the 18-34 category. An early ESPN SportsCenter that same Saturday morning drew 77,000.
The sport has a hard time making the case that it should matter more than a weekend a.m. SportsCenter or, for that matter, the May 25 Indiana-Vegas WNBA game — 73k on NBA TV, 18-34 demo — when track and field’s biggest stars do not race as often as they — pick your word here — should, could, might.
Is that because of Injury? Yes. Is it because of a slew of other issues? Yes. Is it because of money, of which there is not enough in track and field? The question answers itself.
In this context, it is thus illustrative if perhaps indeed instructive to follow the legal precept res ipsa loquitur — the thing speaks for itself — in reviewing what matters.
Particularly but not exclusively when it comes to the Kersee camp.
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Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2023:
LA Times, May 16, 2023:
LA Times, May 26, 2023:
Olympics.com: Edwin Moses was “unbeaten for 10 years, winning 122 consecutive races (107 finals) between 1977 and 1987”
From Tilastopaja.org, Moses in 1977, the year he turned 22 (that August):
And in 1987. Query: at 32, how many races in the legs?
Runners World, May 22, 2024:
