"I actually can't see very well"- When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone opened up on blinking profusely before clearing hurdles during her races

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of the most dominant athletes the 400m hurdles has ever seen, but she does have one thing holding her back when she's on the track. A while ago, during an interview, the American revealed the need for prescription glasses in her everyday life. Since she didn't wear them while on the track, seeing the hurdles was sometimes a hurdle in and of itself.

McLaughlin-Levrone has had an incredible career as a hurdler, writing and then re-writing history. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, the 25-year-old cemented herself as one of the greats of the sport when she clocked a world and Olympic record en route to the gold medal.

Since then, she's broken her own record five more times, most recently at the Paris Olympics, as she took the podium for her second straight gold in the event.

While Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone makes cruising over the 10 hurdles on track look impossibly easy, in an appearance on GQ Magazine’s ‘10 things I can't live without’ segment last year, she revealed how she is reliant on prescription glasses in her everyday life. However, the track star opts to go without glasses on when competing, which leads to some difficulty seeing the hurdles.

“I do not wear contacts, but I actually can't see very well. And it's kind of been a problem because when I get close up to a hurdle, I have to blink a lot in order to clear my eyes so that I can see what I'm about to jump over. But it is what it is. I tried contacts, but couldn't do it, it's fine.”

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone also revealed the glasses she wears are from Christian Dior. She further went on to reveal that she might consider lasik surgery once she retires.

“But my everyday glasses for reading, these ones are actually from Christian Dior. Yeah, I'm not gonna put them on, but you know, you get the gist. I would probably wait until after my career to do LASIK just in case, for whatever reason, something goes wrong, I need to be able to see.

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When will Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone race next?

The Olympic Games-Paris 2024 - Source: Getty

After an incredible 2024 season which has seen her set two world records, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will be back on track soon enough. The American will be racing at the 2024 Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, running the 200m and 400m before she closes out her season.

McLaughlin-Levrone was originally scheduled to run the Brussels Diamond League Final but was scratched from the event since she didn't meet the criteria of having raced in at least one Diamond League meet over the course of the season. However, organizers then added two special races to the program to ‘honor’ the sprinter, allowing fans to see her in action one last time in 2024.