Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone vs Femke Bol: Who performed better in Round 1 of 400m hurdles at the Paris Olympics 2024?

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol are arguably two of the fastest 400m hurdlers in history. When the two are on track, the fight for first place is mostly between the two, and it's going to be the same at the Paris Olympics 2024.

McLaughlin-Levrone and Bol ran in the women's 400m hurdles round 1 on August 4 at the Paris Olympics. Surprisingly, the Dutch runner emerged faster than McLaughlin-Levrone. However, the two were placed in different heats with different sets of competitors.

Bol won the heat 4 of the competition in 53.38s to book a direct place in the semifinals. McLaughlin-Levrone was a tad slower at 53.60s but finished first in heat 5, whose second-place finisher clocked 55.26. The second-place finisher in Bol's heat clocked 53.95, which pushed the world champion to run faster.

While Femke Bol did still look better than Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, it has been the American who has dominated the head-to-head battle between the two. The two first faced each other at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics final, where McLaughlin-Levrone ran a world record for gold while Bol set the European record for the bronze medal.

Their next and most recent meeting came at the 2022 World Championship finals and it was the American who reigned supreme again. McLaughlin-Levrone ran 50.68 for the new world record while Bol finished second for the silver medal.

Predicting Femke Bol vs Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clash at the Paris Olympics

Athletics - Olympics: Day 12 - Source: Getty

Both Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol have been in incredibly dominant form in the 2024 season. While the American lowered her world record to 50.65s at the Olympic Trials, Bol breached the 51-second mark for the first time in her career, running 50.95 in mid-July.

While Bol does seem to be getting better with each year over the 400m hurdles, McLaughlin-Levrone is also making sure she is a step ahead. The defending Olympic champion is eying to break the 50-second mark over hurdles, and it could very likely come at the Paris Olympics 2024 given how Bol is performing.

Both Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone can run under 51 seconds, and it won't take anything less than that for them to win against each other. At the start line, the odds will be in equal favor of the two but the American will be expected to run a new world record to defend her 400m hurdles Olympic gold medal.