Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has emerged as one of the biggest track and field names in recent times. Owning the 400 m hurdles category, McLaughlin-Levrone is considered the GOAT of hurdles. After all, she has never lost in an Olympic event and has picked up gold medals every time she participated in one. And most of her success can be traced back to one of the greatest coaches of all time, Bobby Kersee. But while reading McLaughlin-Levrone’s book, it appears that her path toward Coach Bob was not at all smooth. 

The former Olympic gold medalist, Joanna Hayes, initially coached Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Starting in 2018, Hayes continued to be by the athlete’s side until 2020. This was when McLaughlin-Levrone decided to take a major career decision. She wanted to sever the ties with Hayes and move on to a new coach. But in order to do that, she had to convey the bitter news to her current coach. And that is something that McLaughlin-Levrone dreaded very much. 

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone shied away from direct communication 

The champion athlete did not want to make the conversation herself and ended up asking her manager to do it for her. While the problem was taken care of, Joanna Hayes was emotionally hurt. Having a close bond with McLaughlin-Levrone, Hayes expected the news to be delivered by McLaughlin-Levrone herself and not in a business way. Looking back at her mistake, the champion athlete feels sorry. 

Opening up about the matter, McLaughlin-Levrone shared in her book, “As soon as we started talking, I wished I’d been the one to have that conversation with her. I knew immediately that having the news delivered in such an impersonal way hurt her. It also stung that I was going to Bobby, her former coach, whom she’d introduced me to.” Realizing her mistake, the Olympian had a guilt feeling deep down. She said, “In order to avoid difficult conversations, l’d damaged relationships with people I cared about.”

And this lack of direct communication also spilled onto her own family. As a matter of fact, the Olympic gold medalist made yet another mistake. Her brother, Taylor, was working closely with Joanna Hayes. Feeling uncomfortable about letting him know about her decision, McLaughlin-Levrone let her dad break the news. This, again, created a situation. 

The Olympian’s brother asked her why it was their dad who broke the news and not her. McLaughlin-Levrone said, “”Why did I find out from Dad and not you?” was the first thing he said to me after hearing the news. He understood why I was making the change, but the lack of direct communication made our familial relationship feel strictly business.” Well, surely, the champion made some mistakes. But her decision to switch to Bobby Kersee was not at all a mistake. 

Sydney McLaughlin flourished under Bobby Kersee

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was having a tough time until she came under the guidance of Bobby Kersee. Having struggled significantly, Kersee never tried to change her entire technique. Instead, he fine-tuned some of her flaws and stressed more on mental toughness. A major change suggested by Kersee was to curtail her steps between the hurdles from 15 to 14. And that worked like magic.

McLaughlin-Levrone went on to win 2 gold medals in Tokyo and also won the USATF 400m hurdles. Competing at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, the champion created a world record by running 50.68s. She once again came into the news, as she broke the 16-year-old world record of 52.34s by running a blitzkrieg time of 50.65s. But she didn’t stop there. The queen of hurdles further chopped off some more seconds as she ran 50.37s in the Paris Olympics. Thus, while she did have some jitters coming to coach Bob, her journey after that was all shiny and glorious.