The young American confirms the hopes placed in her and lowers by almost half a second the record she set in June. The climatic conditions and “new generation” shoes are not unrelated to the performances observed in Tokyo.
The days go by and look the same at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. The day after the XXL performance of the Norwegian Karsten Warholm, the American Sydney McLaughlin was crowned Wednesday for the first time in her career Olympic champion of the 400m hurdles by beating her own world record in 51 ″ 46.
First woman to go under 52 seconds, the American, who is 21 years old, held the world record since June 27 (51 ″ 90). Improving Wednesday by almost half a second, she is ahead of her compatriot and defending champion Dalilah Muhammad (51 ″ 58), still in the lead when passing the penultimate hurdle. Dutchwoman Femke Bol completed the podium (52 ″ 03).
The one who had been in 2016 in Rio the youngest American athlete engaged in the Games since Munich in 1972 brilliantly confirms the hopes placed in her since her emergence in the youth categories. She also takes her revenge on the Doha Worlds in 2019, where Dalilah Muhammad had beaten her.
Suitable climate and footwear
It is the third world record of these Olympic Games in athletics after the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump (15.67 m) and Warholm over 400 m hurdles (45 ″ 94). Other races were run very quickly, such as the 100m men won Sunday by the Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs in 9 ″ 80. With the exception of Usain Bolt, no athlete has gone so fast to win the Olympic title in the 100m.
The climatic conditions (33 ° and 60% humidity) are not foreign. They promote explosive efforts (sprint, throw, jump), explained before the Games Franck Brocherie, researcher in exercise physiology and environmental physiology at the Sport, expertise and performance laboratory at Insep. “Warmer, more active muscles respond better to explosive, very short and intense efforts. There, records can fall ”, he said to Release. The appearance of “new generation” short-distance shoes also plays a role in these performances. These ultralight points are equipped with a carbon blade in the sole that restores energy with each press, a bit like the effect of a spring.
Programmed
Sydney McLaughlin, gifted on the slopes, was long awaited at the highest level, as she had impressed at the start of her career, with her world records in the cadets and then in the juniors.
Coming from a family of runners (his brother Taylor was vice-world junior champion in the 400m hurdles in 2016 and his father a semi-finalist in the 400m of the American selections for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles), McLaughlin especially was able to remain impervious to pressure after being labeled as the future star of US athletics, from the Rio Olympics, which she left at the semi-finals stage.
“In 2016, I didn’t know what to expect, now I have more experience, I have matured. My ambitions are much higher than in Brazil. I know what I want to do, what athlete and what person I want to be ”, she said before the Games.
Passed professional in 2019, with the key to a contract estimated at one million dollars annually with the equipment supplier New Balance, she joined in 2020 the elite group of Bob Kersee, figure of athletics, where she notably rubs shoulders with Allyson. Felix, most medalist female athlete in Games history tied with Jamaican Merlene Ottey (9).
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