For those good folks who have followed my career, you know about my love affair with the sport of basketball from my days as a player, coach, and currently as a writer and broadcaster.
You also know that my second love in sports is track and field. If you were following me on social media last week, you know that I was all in on the World Track and Field Championships, which were held in Eugene, Oregon.
It was the first time that the World Championships were held on American soil and the athletes from the USA put on a show for the ages during the 10-day event. It is amazing to see what these young athletes are doing as they continue to elevate the sport with each dazzling performance after another.
There was nobody at that meet that was more dazzling than American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin, who continues to set new and ridiculous new standards every time she steps on the track. In her signature race, the 400-meter hurdles, McLaughlin ran away from the field in an incredible time of 50.68 seconds. This was one of the most amazing things that I have seen in watching sports.
At last year’s Olympic Trials, Sydney broke the world record with a time of 51.9 seconds. At the subsequent Olympic Games in Tokyo, won the gold medal and broke her own world record with a time of 51.46 seconds. At that time, I could not believe that I was witnessing a young lady run a full lap around the track over 10 hurdles in less than 52 seconds. McLaughlin had done it twice. And in that race, we had two as USA teammate Dalilah Muhammad won the silver medal in 51.68 seconds.
Little that we knew that Sydney was just getting warmed up. When last week’s 400-meter hurdles final rolled around, she blasted out of the starting blocks and ran away from everyone early. And she kept going, and going, and going.
When she had finished, she had crushed her own world record by a second. This race reminded me of the 1973 Belmont Stakes when the great Secretariat clinched the triple crown with a history 31-length victory. And it figured that if you put her 50.68 in the open 400-meter dash field, she would have placed in seventh place in the final. That’s mind blowing. Even more mind blowing is the fact that she’s just 22 years old.
McLaughlin’s dominant performance in the hurdles was just the tip of the iceberg for her and her USA teammates. She closed out the championships with an anchor leg of 47.9 seconds as the USA coasted to victory in the 4×400-meter relay. She was joined on the relay team by Talitha Diggs, Abby Steiner, and Britton Wilson. The quartet ran the fourth fastest time in history.
The USA women’s 4×100-meter relay team pulled off the upset of the championships when they defeated a loaded squad from Jamaica to win the gold. The team of Melissa Anderson, Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Twanisha “Tee Tee” Terry stunned the Jamaicans, who featured the top three finishers in the open 100-meter dash.
In the women’s 800, Athing Mu won the gold medal to add to the one that she earned in Tokyo last year. The splendid 20-year-old has emerged as the queen of the middle distance in the past year. We have been waiting for more than a half a century for an American woman to come along in the 800 and now we have one I Mu, who runs with great speed and elegance.
On the men’s side, the USA dominated the sprints as they swept both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. In the 200, Noah Lyles was incredible as he won the gold medal and set a new American record of 19.31 seconds. He was followed by Kenny Bednarek and teenage sensation Erriyon Knighton to complete the sweep. Knighten, 18, is going to be truly special. In the 100, Fred Curley led an American sweep by taking the gold medal. Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell followed him.
The 4×400 team of Elija Goodwin, Michael Norman, Bryce Deadmon, and Champion Allison also dominated in winning the gold. The USA also swept the shot put and took the top two spots in the 110-meter-high hurdles.
