Sydney McLaughlin confesses that she didn’t want to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic final because of anxiety – Marca English

Anxiety can be crippling to any human being, not least professional athletes.

With incredible amounts of pressure on them to perform, there is an understandable fear of failure, which for some manifests in incredibly unusual thoughts, as was the case for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the 400m world record holder.

“I’ll never forget it. I must have been going past the eighth fence and I was thinking, ‘I’m going to make sure I don’t make this final’. I don’t care if my season ends early, I just want it to be over,” she confessed.

The 400m hurdles world record holder admits in her book ‘Beyond Gold: Fleeing Fear to Faith’ – on sale in January 2024 – that she deliberately sat out the Rio 2016 Olympic final out of anxiety.

“I remember crossing the line as if to say, ‘See, your season is over’. But the competitor in me was so angry at myself – why would you do that?” continues the American, then just 16 and this country’s youngest track Olympian in four decades.

Little did the world know that the young star, a double Olympic champion five years later in Tokyo (400m hurdles and 4x400m), suffered from anxiety and an atrocious fear of failure.

She reached the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles, her star event, but decided she would go no further. She took her foot off the accelerator at the end of the race and sped to the finish line.

What was her fear of failure like?

McLaughlin-Levrone experienced a fear of failure during her younger days, but what did that entail?

“I was really afraid of what was going to happen. It seemed like the end of the world if I didn’t get to the top of the podium,” she added.

“Honestly, I robbed myself of an opportunity. I don’t know what would have happened, but I really didn’t want to find out. I left Rio with the feeling that I had left something behind. It was very hard. It’s not something you want to talk about, because you don’t want people to be mad at you, but it was really my own thing.

“I knew I wasn’t ready for that moment. I wasn’t mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually fit to have made that final.

“I don’t think at 24 years old I have much of a story to tell, but if it can encourage or inspire anyone, I’m happy to do it.”

The top athlete of 2022 – she received this award from World Athletics after twice breaking the women’s 400m hurdles world record – shares her ordeal in the hope of helping others who suffer from anxiety about expectations.

The book is a faith-driven journey that helped her follow the path to the top. In addition to two Olympic golds, she is a three-time world champion (4×400 in Doha 2019 and 400 and 4×400 in Eugene 2022).

Faith in God, her lifeline

That faith has a lot to do with Andre Levrone, a former NFL player and her husband since 2022.

McLaughlin-Levrone explains how her partner helped her strengthen her relationship with God, which changed her outlook on life and her athletics career.

“I know I’m not the only one with anxiety issues. It’s a very common thing that so many people go through.”

A knee injury forced her out of the World Championships in Budapest last summer, but rehabilitation is on track and she is aiming for her third consecutive Games.

The record holder admits that she would love to be a mother and has athletes like Allyson Felix and Nia Ali as references in this sense, who have shown that the track can be taken up again and medals can still be won even after giving birth.

“When the time comes and it’s what the Lord wants, then great,” she concluded.