In the quiet arithmetic of track and field, a few numbers carry more weight than others. The digits “48.70” have remained untouched in American sprinting since 2006. A figure wrapped in history and stubborn resistance. We’re talking about the time Sanya Richards-Ross lit up the track. Now, nearly two decades later, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone appears intent on dragging that number into modern daylight. Her decision to bypass the 400m hurdles in favor of the flat quarter-mile signals more than just a strategic shift. It revives a race against time itself.

The last time McLaughlin-Levrone committed fully to the open 400m, she came within hundredths of matching Sanya Richards-Ross’ U.S. record. That performance, at the 2023 national championships in Eugene, yielded a searing 48.74. A time that startled onlookers and redefined her place in the discipline. She dominated the field that evening, winning by more than a full second. Britton Wilson crossed in 49.79, Talitha Diggs followed at 49.93, but neither runner ever seriously challenged her lead.

It is from this point that her current pursuit gains context. Richards-Ross’ American record, established during a blistering season in 2006, has withstood a generation of challengers for 19 long years. McLaughlin-Levrone’s near-miss two years ago remains the closest brush with that standard in recent memory. Her renewed focus on the 400m, confirmed by her decision to skip the hurdles at the upcoming U.S. Outdoor Championships, elevates expectations. She is not simply racing for titles anymore. She is reaching for legacies.

To understand the weight of that target, one must consider its proximity to the global mark. Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60, set in 1985, is not just unbeaten but largely unapproached. No woman in the modern era has cracked 48 seconds. McLaughlin-Levrone, already an Olympic champion in another event, is among the very few with the tools to make a credible attempt. Her unique blend of stride control, poise under pressure, and finishing strength is built for this kind of task. Not a seasonal goal, but a permanent place in the sport’s record books.

Still, recent results have introduced nuance. At this year’s Prefontaine Classic, she returned to the flat 400m with a solid but unspectacular 49.43. It was enough to win and marked the fifth-fastest time in the world this season. McLaughlin-Levrone certainly wasn’t too thrilled about it. “Disappointment. I just know that I’m more fit than that. So, it’s just about executing and putting our race together.” 

Yet it remained well short of the territory she must occupy to seriously contend with Richards-Ross’ standard, much less Koch’s. Even so, her choice to refocus her training exclusively on the 400m signals that a more aggressive build-up is in progress. For an athlete of her precision, one performance rarely tells the full story.

Now, as she prepares for her latest national championship appearance, the picture is clear. The names at the top of the American record list have not changed in 19 years. If McLaughlin-Levrone can change that, she will not only replace Richards-Ross. She will reframe what the ceiling looks like for American sprinting. And perhaps, in time, for the global game as well. Meanwhile, McLaughlin-Levrone previously did break some 400m records earlier in her career. 

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s unfinished business with the 400m flat

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has long been regarded for her supremacy in the 400-meter hurdles, but her earliest track records whispered of a broader talent. Back in college, she startled observers not by sailing over barriers, but by what she achieved on a clear lane. In March 2018, as a freshman at the University of Kentucky, she clocked 50.36 seconds in the indoor 400 meters, a world junior record at the time. Months later, she returned to the track and delivered a resounding 52.75 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles, breaking the collegiate record in her first SEC Championship. That was no ordinary double. It marked the beginning of a dual identity: one foot in the technical mastery of the hurdles, the other in the unrelenting demand of the open quarter.

Years later, McLaughlin-Levrone is attempting to recapture that raw, unfiltered speed. She is not easing into it. “The records come when they come,” she said recently on the Ready Set Go podcast. “We are working to get faster in the 400, we’re working to get faster in the hurdles.” It is clear she views the 400 meters not as a secondary task, but as a discipline requiring its own commitment. Her near miss at the 2023 U.S. Championships, 48.74 seconds, just 0.04 off Sanya Richards-Ross’s American record, remains her closest brush. Still, she admitted the timing had not quite aligned. “There’s always been something off, whether it’s the weather or even just a little bit of training.”

This season, her aspirations met resistance. At the Prefontaine Classic, she posted 49.43 seconds against a formidable field. Then came her withdrawal from the Ed Murphey Classic, citing illness. These are not defeats, but disruptions. Yet for someone who once redefined collegiate standards in the flat 400, they underscore just how precise the challenge now is. And now fans would just eagerly wait to witness how her new decision of taking up the 400m flat over her ground of fote of 400 m hurdles turns out to be.