US runner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has done it again, winning the Women's World Athlete of the Year for the second time at the 2025 World Athletics Awards on Sunday.
In a pivot from her historic 400-meter hurdles dominance, McLaughlin-Levrone chose to master its flat counterpart this year, racing to an undefeated season in the 400-meter flat event in 2025.
"For me, 2025 was a year of stepping outside of the comfort zone and pushing the bounds of what was mentally and physically possible," the four-time US Olympic gold medalist said in a Sunday press release. "I want to continue pushing boundaries in 2026."
Already a winner of the 2018 World Athletics Rising Star Award, McLaughlin-Levrone snagged her first Women's World Athlete of the Year honor in 2022 following a first-ever individual world title in her signature 400-meter hurdles.
This year, the 26-year-old claimed a second individual world trophy in record-breaking fashion, winning the 400-meter with a Championships and North American record-shattering time of 47.78 seconds — the second-fastest of all time — at September's 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
The victory cemented her as the first athlete to claim world titles in both the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter flat, ultimately earning her Sunday's World Athlete of the Year honor.
"The culmination of the season in Tokyo was a really special moment. I'm so thankful for everyone who supported, watched, voted, and who was there throughout this whole process," McLaughlin-Levrone added.
US sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone blew past the competition this week, becoming the first women's track athlete to run a sub-48 second 400-meter dash in almost 40 years on Thursday, when she won the event final at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist clocked a blistering time of 47.78 seconds, breaking her own US record en route to becoming the new world champion.
Notably, Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino — the 400-meter gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics — crossed Thursday's finish line right on McLaughlin-Levrone's heels, joining the US winner in breaking the near-impossible 48-second barrier with a time of 47.98 seconds.
"You don't run something like that without amazing women pushing you to it," said McLaughlin-Levrone afterwards, crediting the impact of the other contenders on her own historic pace.
McLaughlin-Levrone's new time is now the second fastest in the sport's history, trailing only the 1985 world record of 47.60 seconds set by East Germany's Marita Koch.
Thursday's win also marked the 26-year-old's first-ever major international 400-meter flat title after historically dominating the 400-meter hurdles, making McLaughlin-Levrone the only athlete to hold world titles in both races.
"I felt that somebody was going to have to run 47-something to win this," Bobby Kersee, the sprinter's longtime coach, told The AP. "She trained for it. She took on the challenge, took on the risk. She's just an amazing athlete that I can have no complaints about."
Four-time Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone maintained her 400-meter crown this weekend, completing her second straight 400-meter events sweep at the Grand Slam Track series' Miami meet on Sunday.
One month after completing the sweep at the first Grand Slam meet in Kingston, Jamaica, the 25-year-old US track star won Saturday's 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.07 seconds before also taking Sunday's 400-meter flat event in 49.69 seconds — a race that earned McLaughlin-Levrone a $100,000 winner's check.
McLaughlin-Levrone has a veritable stranglehold on the 400-meter hurdles, dominating that race since her last loss at the 2019 World Championships.
In that span, she blasted through six world records across 12 straight victories — lowering the women's 400-meter hurdles world standard from 52.16 seconds to a blistering 50.37-second pace.
With two more Grand Slam meets in Philadelphia and LA in the coming weeks, McLaughlin-Levrone is considering a literal change of pace, temporarily switching to run the 100-meter events — a distance she hasn't competed in since 2018.
Should she take on the shorter sprints, McLaughlin-Levrone could find herself racing against the reigning Olympic champion in the 100-meter hurdles, Masai Russell — who notably posted the second-fastest time in the event's history, not to mention a new US record, by winning in 12.17 seconds on Friday.
How to watch the final two Grand Slam Track meets
McLaughlin-Levrone, Russell, and other track stars will next compete in the third Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia from May 30th through June 1st, before closing out the series in LA between June 27th and June 29th.
All 2025 Grand Slam Track meets stream live on Peacock.