Olympic hurdles legend Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is making strides on the flat track, winning the 400-meter race at this weekend's 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships to book a spot representing Team USA at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.

Following her winning finish just two-tenths of a second shy of the US record of 48.70, McLaughlin-Levrone is fast closing in on the mark set by track icon Sanya Richards-Ross in 2006.

Notably, the four-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion opted to skip her signature 400-meter hurdles to focus on the 400-meter flat event, choosing to sit out her career-making race in order to chase a new goal.

"This is a challenge — I want to challenge myself," McLaughlin-Levrone explained. "I felt like this year, I wanted to step out of the box and really push myself in a different way."

"I think this year, and this event, has taught me patience," McLaughlin-Levrone said following her Saturday win. "I've learned a lot about myself…. Every day it's stepping on the track, being the best I can be, figuring out a race that is very foreign to me, and taking on new challenges and being comfortable doing it."

The newly minted US 400-meter champion will next hunt the event's world title at next month's 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo — the city where McLaughlin-Levrone earned her first two Olympic gold medals.

"That's a very daunting task in and of itself," she said about competing in the 400-meter race at Worlds. "It's a very competitive field.... I want to make sure I can give my all."

After winning the women’s 100m at USATF Nationals, Sha’Carri Richardson repeated a line that has guided her 2023 season: “I’m not back. I’m better.”

By winning the race at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, Richardson earned a spot at August’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, which will be her first major global championship. (Video of Richardson’s 100m win is embedded below.)

Richardson burst onto the scene in 2019 when set broke the 100m collegiate record at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships. She turned pro days later, but went on to place eighth at USATF Nationals, missing that year’s world championships.

Two years later, Richardson entered the 2021 season looking like the Olympic favorite. She won the women’s 100m at U.S. Olympic Trials, but that result was voided — and her Olympic spot revoked — after she tested positive for marijuana (which is banned in-competition).

Richardson struggled in 2022, missing out again on world championships after she was eliminated in the first round of the 100m at USATF Nationals. The Texas native later said she was dealing with injury.

But 2023 has been Richardson’s year. She opened the outdoor season by beating a stacked field — including five-time Olympic medalist Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and two-time Olympic medalist Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain — to claim her first Diamond League win.

“I found my peace back on the track, and I’m not letting anything or anybody take that anymore,” Richardson said then.

During the preliminary round of the 100m in Eugene, Richardson clocked 10.71 — a new personal best and the fastest time by an American woman in 12 years. Only Jackson (10.65) has run faster this year.

While Richardson didn’t have the best start in the 100m final, she made up for it with a fierce kick, outsprinting Brittany Brown and Tamari Davis, who will also make their world championship debuts in Budapest. Richardson also has a chance to qualify for August’s World Championships in the 200m; she posted the fastest time in the preliminary round. The women’s 200m semifinals and final are on Sunday night.

Over the weekend, Richardson also took to Twitter to blast coverage of USATF Nationals and streaming issues on USATF.TV. She went on to call out FloTrack after the outlet tweeted “That’s how we do it!” about her 100m win.

Richardson replied with a GIF of Eddie Murphy from the 1999 movie Life: “We?!”