By Keeler McJunkin
Sydney McLaughlin, a 16-year-old who just finished her junior year in high school, who doesn’t have her driver’s license because she lost her permit and likes to juggle in her free time, was so nervous when she got to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials that she told her coach she couldn’t run.
She didn’t think she had the mental toughness to compete at such a high profile event. There were too many cameras and too many fans in the stands. She thought it was too much.
Ten days later, McLaughlin is headed to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after out-leaning a diving Kori Carter to take bronze by .03 in the women’s 400-meter hurdle final Sunday in a world junior record of 54.15.
She will be the youngest American track Olympian since 1972.
“The first day I got here I wasn’t going to run,” McLaughlin said. “My coaches pushed me through it and now here I am. I’m on the team. Sometimes I forget that I’m just 16, and I have to look away from all the cameras.”
After coming so close to making the Olympic team herself, Carter had only respect for what McLaughlin was able to accomplish this week as a teenager.
“She’s a beast, she’s the truth,” Carter said. “I was in every single heat with her, and she carries herself like a pro. I know she’s going to represent the U.S. amazingly.”
Dalilah Muhammad (52.88) and Ashley Spencer (54.02) took gold and silver and will be the other two members of the U.S. team. Muhammad’s time was a new Olympic trials record, but even that didn’t overshadow the teenager’s feat.
Spencer and Muhammad weren’t even thinking about trying to qualify for the Olympics when they were 16:
Said Spencer: “I was trying to figure out which pants fit.”
Added Muhammad: “I was competing at a world meet that year, but I ran 57 seconds, not 54.”
McLaughlin said she struggled with nervousness as the first round of races began.
“I just wanted to get it over with,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t have any expectations and just wanted to see what I could do, but after I ran 55 everything got easier. It was a big relief.”
At the age of 6, McLaughlin was running AAU track for fun. She hadn’t considered taking running seriously. That was until her father, Willie, made her a deal that drove her motivation to start competitive track.
“My dad said if I won the race I would get a chocolate bar with almonds,” McLaughlin said. “I won the race and I got a chocolate bar. Ever since I kept running, so I could get chocolate bars.”
Even through an entire press conference that featured mainly questions to the bronze medal winner, Muhammad and Spencer weren’t jealous their moment was overshadowed. They have too much respect for a teenager who just qualified for the Olympic Games.
“This young lady has a very bright future,” Spencer said. “I look forward to competing with her and against her. I just look forward to watching her grow in the sport I’m in. I’m proud of her.”
McLaughlin turns 17 two days after the Olympics in Rio begin, and now she has the experience of competing at the Olympic trials to help her nerves when the Games begin.
For now, though, McLaughlin has something more important on her mind tonight. Having her favorite post-race meal.
“I’m gonna have a cheeseburger, maybe some sweet potato fries and cheesecake, definitely,” McLaughlin said.
