“I wanted to challenge myself. I felt like this is the year I wanted to step out of the box and really push myself in a different way,” confessed Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone after she crossed the finish line with a season best of 48.90 to win the gold at the USATF championships earlier this month. In fact, she ditched the hurdles to run the open 400 this season, and so far, it has been a decent sprint for McLaughlin-Levrone. Although her quest to surpass the women’s 400m American record has not been fulfilled yet, she is now eyeing to clinch the gold in the same discipline at the upcoming Tokyo World Championships. And with the season she has had so far, she seems ready. Yet track coach Rob Anderson isn’t convinced.

On August 27, Coach Rob shared a YouTube video analyzing Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 2025 races. He mentioned “If you look at the 400 hurdles… she didn’t focus on that event going towards Worlds,” he said, “But the two times she ran it, she still beat the field by about two full seconds both times she runs.” Since breaking the world record in the 400m hurdles in 2021, Sydney has lowered it six times, most recently 50.37 at the Paris Olympics last August.

“Every time she’s run it whether she ran it at a Grand Slam track section or she ran it you know in at the Prefontaine Classic or at the USA’s in a prelim or a final, the closest anybody has ever gotten to her has been about a half of a second,” Coach Rob said. In almost every race, she beats second place by at least a full second. By the time she hits 300 meters, she’s way out in front. Everybody else is playing catch-up. And that’s what bothers the coach. “It just hasn’t happened. I mean yeah, the gun has gone off, and these have been pro races where other people had technically a shot to win.”

Well, we know that for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Sydney has chosen to forego the 400m hurdles in favor of the flat 400. And even though it’s not her main event, she’s still winning:

• Kingston Slam (April 6, 2025): 50.32 seconds, 1st place, winning margin ~1.77 seconds

Looking at these numbers, it’s easy to see why Rob has questions. Her rivals are good, but not competitive enough to push her. It would have been easy to win by almost any margin. The truth? “Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has really not run a competitive race this year in the open 400,” Coach Rob said. “Sydney has run time trials in every 400 she’s competed in this season. She’s been running with fast women… but when they faced off with Sydney, the same script played out. Sydney runs away from the field and nobody’s able to catch her.”

At the 2025 U.S. Track & Field Championships on August 2, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clinched her second national title in the 400m flat with a season-best 48.90 seconds, narrowly missing Sanya Richards-Ross’s American record of 48.70. Her victory margin was a razor-thin 0.31 seconds over Isabella Whittaker. But that performance is only the tip of the iceberg. Earlier in the season, at the Prefontaine Classic on July 5, she won the 400m in 49.43 seconds, outpacing Aaliyah Butler, who finished in 49.86. It all looks effortless, almost routine, but has she ever truly faced her real rivals? That question lingers, and it’s what makes her 2025 season so fascinating.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone can win, but one mistake could steal her gold

Well, in the 400m flat for 2025, the story is clear: the top contenders for betting include Salwa Eid Naser, who lit up the Grand Slam Track Meet with a 48.67-second run, and Marileidy Paulino, who clocked 48.81 in Paris. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone sits just behind them this year with a season-best of 48.90 at the U.S. National Championships. To put it in perspective, the world record for the women’s 400m flat remains Marita Koch’s legendary 47.60 from 1985, untouchable, but these three are racing toward it. Yet numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.

Salwa and Marileidy have been competing, but Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has not always been in the mix, at least not with them. That is the main problem: she needs to race against them to be at her best. At the 2025 Kingston Slam (April 5), Salwa set a course record at 48.67, with Marileidy second at 49.35, and Sydney absent. The Miami Slam (May 2) saw Marileidy take the win in 49.21, Salwa in 49.33, and Sydney again not competing. The three only faced off in a major final last year at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Marileidy won gold in 48.17, Salwa silver, and Sydney finished fourth.

Looking toward the World Championships, the real competition is crystal clear: Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser, both 400m specialists running consistently fast times on the circuit. Coach Rob Anderson explains the challenge for Sydney: “Competitively speaking, the only way Sydney can prepare to win the gold is to prepare with people who can actually beat her. And at this moment, the women… she has access to compete against aren’t those people. Running in all these races… what’s the point? She can always go to a track and train with her coach… If she’s going to do anything that is a simulated race… it’s like a time trial.”

Marileidy has already clocked 48.81 this season, Salwa 48.67, and Sydney’s 48.90 from Eugene is her benchmark heading into Tokyo. For the first time in years, the 400m flat may not be Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s race to lose, and that uncertainty, the tension of real competition, is exactly what makes the 2025 season impossible to ignore.