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.

Entering Friday’s Florence Diamond League meet, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was already considered the best women’s 1500-meter runner in history. She won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the event in 2016 and 2021, plus world titles in 2017 and 2022.

But the 29-year-old Kenyan solidified her G.O.A.T. status by clocking 3 minutes, 49.11 seconds to take nearly a second off the women’s 1500m world record. The previous mark, set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2015, was 3:50.07.

“This was really important because this was something I was still missing in my career,” Kipyegon said. “Getting this, it will really motivate me. I left the legacy for the next generation – they can say she broke the world record, she was the Olympic and the world champion.”

Kipyegon is one of the most well-respected track and field athletes currently competing — and it showed on Friday. All of her competitors — including 2021 Olympic silver medalist Laura Muir — gathered around her to celebrate the accomplishment.

 

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(Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

After the race, Kipyegon — who gave birth to daughter Alyn in June 2018 — dedicated her world record to “all the mothers.”

The world record was on Kipyegon’s mind entering Florence. Unlike at the Olympics and world championships, Diamond League races use pacers who help facilitate fast marks.

“After 1000 (meters), when the pacemaker went out, I just pushed myself towards the finish line,” Kipyegon said. “That was what my manager told me – anything is possible – after the pacemaker, just run your race. And that is what I did.”

Kipyegon nearly broke the world record last August, missing it by 0.3 seconds at a Diamond League stop in Monaco.