Some rivalries end with a finish-line celebration. Others leave behind something much deeper. For Dalilah Muhammad, her final 400m hurdles race in Budapest marked the closing chapter of a career that helped reshape the event. And as the 36-year-old walked away, one of the athletes who knew that journey better than most had a message waiting for her.

Muhammad was the first U.S. woman to win Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles. Highlighting all her achievements in her illustrious career, Team USA shared a post on IG with the caption, “The end of an era 🇺🇸 Thank you, @dalilahmuhammad_ for raising the bar and paving the way for generations to come.”

Later on, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone shared Team USA’s farewell post for Muhammad on Instagram, adding a heartfelt tribute of her own: “Thank you for pushing me and so many others to be better. A true competitor in every sense of the world!!”

It was a fitting message from McLaughlin-Levrone. Few athletes have pushed each other quite like these two did.

Muhammad had already hinted that Budapest would be different. Before the meet, she told Lewis Johnson, “I know I’ve said it before, but this is it.” She had originally expected 2025 to be her final season, only to return for one more year because she wanted to experience the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship.

And when the final came, Muhammad still looked like the competitor she had always been. She clocked 53.11 seconds to finish fourth, just 0.02 behind fellow American Anna Cockrell, while Jasmine Jones won in 52.45.

There was no medal this time. Yet Muhammad’s career had long since secured its place in the history books.

She won Olympic gold in Rio in 2016, a silver in Tokyo, two world titles and two Diamond League titles. In 2019, she twice lowered the 400m hurdles world record, first to 52.20 before taking it down again to 52.16 at the World Championships in Doha. That second mark came with McLaughlin-Levrone right behind her in 52.23.

That was the rivalry that changed everything.

The rivalry that pushed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to another level

When Muhammad broke the long-standing world record in 2019, McLaughlin was still only 19. The younger American had already shown flashes of greatness, but Muhammad was the reigning Olympic champion and the established force in the event.

Then the teenager started chasing.

At the 2019 World Championships, Muhammad lowered her own record to 52.16, with McLaughlin finishing second. Two years later, the tables turned. McLaughlin broke the record at the U.S. Olympic Trials with 51.90 before producing another world-record performance of 51.46 to win Olympic gold in Tokyo. Muhammad followed in 51.58.

The numbers tell only part of that story. The other part was the respect.
McLaughlin-Levrone has repeatedly credited Muhammad with helping push her toward heights that once seemed impossible. While speaking on being pushed by champion rival Muhammad, she once even said, “Iron sharpens iron.”

Then in 2025, she put that feeling into words while speaking about her former rival. “Dalilah, you truly did just change the game for all of us,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “I think just seeing you break that world record after so long of it being there, it inspired all of us. So it’s truly because of just the amazing talent you have that we are where we’re at now.”

Their rivalry was never simply about one athlete defeating another. Muhammad broke the record, Sydney answered, and the event kept getting faster. By 2022, McLaughlin-Levrone had pushed the world record down to 50.68 seconds, becoming the first woman to break 51 seconds.

Muhammad, meanwhile, had already helped open that door.

And perhaps that is why her retirement carries a little more weight. She wasn’t merely part of the era. She helped create it.

From being spotted running as a seven-year-old to becoming an Olympic champion and world-record holder, Muhammad’s career stretched across generations of American hurdling. She competed against the likes of Lashinda Demus and Zuzana Hejnová, then became the standard that the next generation had to chase.

Even Cockrell, who trained alongside Muhammad and shared a close bond with her, struggled to accept that the goodbye was finally real. After their final race together in Budapest, Cockrell admitted, “I’m gonna miss her a lot. And it’s hard to believe this is her last one, but, special to be able to share with her, for sure.”

That makes McLaughlin-Levrone’s message feel even more fitting.

There was once a time when Sydney was chasing Dalilah. Then she surpassed her. But the record books can never fully capture what Muhammad gave her younger rival: the pressure, the standard, and the reason to keep running faster.
Now Muhammad has taken her final bow.

And somewhere in that goodbye is the legacy she leaves behind – not simply the medals or records, but the athletes she pushed to become better.