PARIS, France — Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won't be on the purple track alongside Team USA's Alexis Holmes to race in the women's 400-meter finals.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record to successfully defend her Olympic title in the 400-meter hurdles on Thursday, decided to focus on that event for the Paris Summer Games.
While she initially had also signed up to run the 200 and 400-meter flat races at the U.S. Olympic trials, she eventually scratched those plans.
During an interview after winning the 400 hurdles, she spoke about why she ultimately decided to focus on the 400-meter hurdles for Paris.
"I think we wanted to just stick with our bread and butter," McLaughlin-Levrone said.
"I do think the flat 400 has so much to teach hurdlers just in terms of how you attack the race and then also helping with that flat speed. They're two very different races but I think they compliment each other very well."
Just a few days before the Olympic trials, she ran a 400 flat at the NYC Grand Prix in 48.75 seconds — the third fastest time in U.S. history.
McLaughlin-Levrone would have faced an extremely daunting schedule if she had tried to run both the 400 flat and hurdles because the schedules for those races overlap in Paris. It would have required her to run hurdles one day, followed by the 400 flat the next day and so on until both finals.
What remaining Olympic events will Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone participate in?
McLaughlin-Levrone will have one more shot at an Olympic medal before she heads home.
It's expected that she'll compete in the women's 4x400m relay.
