“I found nearest bathroom and threw up” - When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone recalled experiencing panic attack ahead of her first Olympic trials race

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone once recalled experiencing a panic attack ahead of her first-ever USA Olympic Trials race in 2016. At 16, McLaughlin-Levrone appeared at Hayward Field to compete at the trials to secure a position on the USA team for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

However, McLaughlin-Levrone, accompanied by her Union Catholic High School coaches Mike McCabe and Luiz Cartegena, experienced a ‘full-on’ panic attack on seeing a large crowd of about 10,000 fans cheering for the athletes. She felt even more anxious witnessing her competitors having better training strategies and equipment.

As a result, she wanted to quit the race even before competing in her first trials and decided to call her father, Willie McLaughlin, to ask if she could withdraw from the race. According to McLaughlin-Levrone in her book Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith, her father responded:

“You’re already there, Syd. Just make it through this round, and we’ll talk about it. Everyone is here to see you run. Get the experience. It’s the first round of three; there’s no pressure on you.”

After ending the call with her father, she realized there was no way to get out of the race. Overwhelmed by anxiety and the effects of a panic attack, she felt sick and vomited.

“When I ended the call, I knew there was no getting out of the race. So I found the nearest bathroom and threw up," Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone said.

However, the race turned out to be a breakthrough for her as she beat Kori Carter to win her heat in the 400m hurdles. She not only went on to compete at the Rio Olympics that same year, but also shattered the global record for the first time at the next US Olympic trials in 2021 with a sensational 51.90s run in the discipline.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up about her reaction to breaking world record for the first time

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at Paris Olympics (Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty Images)

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone recalled her reaction to breaking the women’s 400m hurdles world record for the first time in her career. Appearing alongside her husband, Andre Levrone, in a virtual session of the ‘Life and Books and Everything’ podcast, she was asked about her thoughts on accomplishing the huge feat. To this, McLaughlin-Levrone remarked (4:56 onwards):

“It was honestly just an unreal moment. You think about that, you know, your whole career is getting to a moment like that. There's obviously World Championships, Olympic championships, and all of those things, but then the world record is always something that every athlete's like, that's the pinnacle that nobody's reached before.”

“Crossing the line, uh, in Eugene in 2021, honestly, I think my face kind of said it all - it was just like utter shock and disbelief especially taking it under 52 seconds, just breaking that barrier,” she further mentioned.

Since breaking the barrier at the 2021 Olympic trials, the USA star hurdler has repeatedly smashed the world record in the 400 meters hurdles, with her most recent one coming at the 2024 Paris Olympics by clocking 50.37s in the finals.