Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wants to expand to flat 400m

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke the 400m hurdles world record four times in the last two years, wants to add the 400m without hurdles to her program.

“I don’t think we’re going to give up the 400m hurdles just yet, but we definitely want to expand to the 400m flat and just see what’s possible there,” McLaughlin-Levrone told NBC Sports in a recent interview.

McLaughlin-Levrone checked off every major box in the 400m hurdles by age 23: Olympic gold medal, world title and world record. After lowering the record to 50.68 seconds at July’s world championships, she was asked about possibly adding or changing events for the run-up to the Paris Games.

Back then, McLaughlin-Levrone said she and coach Bobby Kersee would decide after the season if she will continue to race strictly the 400m hurdles individually at major meets. Her season ended in early August.

Even before the world championships, Kersee told NBC Sports’ Ato Boldon that McLaughlin-Levrone will eventually turn to the flat 400m and chase that 37-year-old world record, the longest-standing in any men’s or women’s sprint event.

Now, McLaughlin-Levrone is voicing something similar.

“That world record has stood for so long, and no one’s come even close to it,” she said. “So we definitely want to be able to try that and see what we can do there as well.”

McLaughlin-Levrone showed her flat potential in the 4x400m relay at worlds. Her split — 47.91 seconds — made her the seventh-fastest relay performer in history and second-fastest in the last 33 years behind Allyson Felix.

McLaughlin-Levrone has never run the individual 400m at a senior championship meet. Her personal best is 50.07 seconds from 2018, when she was a freshman at the University of Kentucky.

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