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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone recalls the heartbreak of her 2019 World Championships loss.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone seems like a perfect athlete in the eyes of many but she has from time to time talked about moments that shattered her.
The 400m hurdles world record holder is undoubtedly one of the greatest athletes but there was a point she never considered herself as such.
During the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, a young Sydney went into the 400m hurdles final race with the hope of winning the race but to her surprise, she was forced to finish second. Dalilah Muhammad claimed the win in the hotly contested race.
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Mind you, that is the only World Championships individual race that Sydney has lost and seems like it was a wake-up call for her. In her book, Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear to Faith, she went down memory lane on the day she lost and the series of emotions she went through.
She opened up about how seeing her father’s reaction after her loss broke her into pieces and deep down, she knew she would have won the race but did not execute it as she wanted.
"I didn't want to hear the congratulations. I didn't want to be told that I'd just run a brilliant race. I knew the truth. I'd fallen short, yet again. I've never been so disappointed, so completely crushed, after a race,” Sydney wrote.
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“After putting on a smile, congratulating Dalilah for her extraordinary achievement, and taking pictures with the American flag, I found my dad in the tunnel. When I saw him, I couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
"Coming in second at the World Championships broke me. I sobbed uncontrollably. There was a part of me that knew I'd just run a fast race and finished second. That wasn't bad for someone as young as I was. But I knew it wasn't enough. I wanted more."
She added that her American rival will remain one of the greatest athletes and at some point, Sydney thought she would never match up to her standards.
However, her faith in God worked wonders for her and that’s when she was also able to break Dalilah’s world record time of 51.90 seconds.
"Dalilah is a great competitor but I think I was growing into my own person and I think the biggest difference this year is my faith, trusting God and trusting that process and knowing that he's in control of everything and as long as I put the hard work in, he's gonna carry me through and I really cannot do anything more but give the glory to him," McLaughlin-Levrone said.
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