Coming into the final bend of the women’s 400m hurdles final, Femke Bol was exactly where she wanted to be. She was right behind Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, just like her coach, Laurent Meuwly, had planned. “The goal for Femke will be to stay as close as possible into the straight,” Meuwly said, and here she was, two-tenths off. Problem was, it was the last time Bol was in the right place all night. McLaughlin-Levrone, the greatest women’s hurdler in history, ran stronger, harder, and faster down the straight, and pulled right away from Bol, and everyone else, towards her second Olympic gold, and a rightful place as the greatest track athlete of her era.
By the time McLaughlin-Levrone reached the 10th hurdle, she was only racing her own world record, set at the US trials in June. She won that contest too. She finished in 50.37sec, which knocked 0.28sec off the old mark. McLaughlin-Levrone was already the first track athlete to break five world records in the same event. She has just become the first to break a sixth. In three years, she is single-handedly cut the best part of two seconds off the world record. Or to put it another way, she has taken a full 3.5% off the record set before she started running, which is double what Usain Bolt trimmed off the men’s 100m mark.
