The Race We've All Been Waiting For || Sydney McLaughlin's 400 Meter Dash 

As far as records of every type go, yes, it is. It'll end up being the greatest year of world records ever in the sport.

​@@HandsomeJelly²2

I've seen better seasons from other athletes

@@dennispacelli1007 what comment would that be? I only see the one you called me out in

Not even top 10 when you make that general of a statement. Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Michael Johnson and a few others come to mind.

Go Jersey

Exactly!!! What's even more amazing for Jersey athletes like Sydney, Athens, Talitha is the absolutely cold and windy conditions when running outdoor season. April and early May are notorious for cold , rainy and windy conditions.

A great villain in Sydney story. 😂😂😂

​@@helloman3676 rather 2 incredible athletes pushing eachother to great heights.

My little Ricardo, Femke is 1.57 seconds BEHIND Sydney! Do you think she's capable of doing anything special?

@@virgilius7036 She may not beat Sydney, but she is on a trajectory to be faster this year than last year.

@Virgilius Anything can happen. She was able to brake the 400m flat indoors this year...

😭😭 I'm ready to see them go, but their coach knows what's he's doing

You understand that all 4 athletes gotta average under 48.78 for that world record to go. That record ain't going anywhere anytime soon along with the men world record which all 4 men gotta average under 43.57

@@416yaadie Syd has split 47.91, Athing 48.32, Britton 48.60 & Abby 48.78. It's about getting all 4 fresh in the right order & being pushed hard by an in-form JAM quartet!

I hope Sydney and Athing aren't in the hands of a doping coach. I don't trust athletes who barely run any races. Micro-seasons are for micro-dosing performance-enhancing drugs. Athletes with big sponsorship contracts take PEDs and test themselves to make sure that their doping regimen stays just below what the tests measure -- and they scale way back for race days, hence the micro-season. Micro-seasons allow you to dope more. If you only have to be absolutely clean for two months, you can stay on low-levels of dope for ten months. Whenever healthy athletes who barely race "miss" out-of-competition tests, it's because they know their doping schedules and they know that if they take the out-of-competition test on x or y or z dates, they'll come up positive. Better to miss one or two tests than to get busted.

WTF is this True? Why? Let them race just like Britton & Femke always like to do for the fans.

She might but that record has stood for decades , and it was drug assisted.

It's likely to have been drug powered and Koch was probably an exceptional athlete anyway. Plus she was very fast. She was a top quality 200m runner. McLaughlin is just outside the all time top 100 for the 100m hurdles (2021 time) which indicates she is fairly fast too, and her 100 time from 2018 of 11.07 (w assisted) looks promising. Her 200m time of 22.39 dates from 5 years ago and ranks her at 156 on the all time list. All the same, it may have been concluded back then that she wasn't quite fast enough to break through at the short sprints or in the flat 400. Her greatest strength might be her endurance, but if she can now generate more speed than 5 years ago she should be in with a chance of going under 49 on a good day. Going under 47.6 is a very tall order and I think it's very unlikely, remarkable though McLaughlin is at her event. 48.5 would be a tremendous achievement.

@@ochjim After the Berlin Wall came down a number of East Germans admitted their was a State Sponsored drug programme . That all the top athletes were included in including rowers (Jurgen Grobler admitted the later after he moved to England to coach the GB rowing team) ) . Re Koch she said that the steroids she took made her stronger and enabled her to train harder than she would have done otherwise. Plus as you have mentioned she was exceptionally talented anyhow. It will take a monumental performance to break that record. There is a hell of a difference between running say 47.9 and breaking Koch's 47.6. But modern shoes and training methods are making differences in Athletics. But certain records especially in the Women's events (100m/200m/400m/800m are still proving very difficult to break, and those records are now the oldest on the books.

@@keithbate9405 - thanks for adding all that detail and confirming Koch's status as an admitted user, especially. Yep, a relay split time, however fast, is quite different from a standing start time. I'd love to see SMcL do it, as she has really lit up the 400m hurdle scene, but like you I think 47.6 is a big ask, even with the new shoes etc.

@@ochjim Glad to help and I agree . I hope Sydney does it those old records need to be deleted from the books. As a European I hope Femke Bol can challenge Sydney in the 400m hurdles. She is improving rapidly as her indoor season proves.

Bol is not her first name, mam.

@@3pan1 I know that, it's the easiest to type

Bol has no chance of breaking SMLs hurdle record or getting gold in 4x4 with US lineup. She won't race in 400flat so no comparison.

@@mamadeborah1999 no need to be so sicko nationalistic sis, she will however crush the whole lot you mention. Stay tuned.

@@mamadeborah1999 Sydney is just amazing. Bol would be tops, but Sydney is just on another level.

Yeah she is nuts.....55.6 in 400mH as a very young freshman..... immediately world class and U.S. #1 Makes no sense. And to think the same skinny 14yo could long jump 18'6". One of the youngest freshmen, too, since she didn't turn 15 until right before 10th grade.

Exactly my feelings too!

She’s the great white hope

Settle down.

​@@undisputedtruth6176 🤔 what? She's half black 😂

@@undisputedtruth6176 Abby, right?

Yeah i got 50.2, 49.5 and 48.9 for the first three meets She runs 48.0 all the time in LA

You called the ball on both counts brother , emphasis being on giving us a legitimate W. R in the very near future. As I currently understand things , I believe Shana Miller Ouibo is the legitimate owner of the fastest 400m wind legal time by a woman. I welcome any and all who would correct me on this, but discount out of hand any argument in favor of either Marita Koch or Jarmilla Kratchtilova. Nasser has to get an asterisk as well.

Yeah, the pain can be pretty bad if you load up with lactic acid. Only once did I run one of those things without serious pain. Actually, I had no pain at all and could have run another 100m. But the next day I came down with a killer cold. Aha, that’s why no pain, my body was loading up to fight the cold, so I had no oxygen debt and no lactic acid. If every 400m felt that easy, it wouldn’t be a problem. But how do you fool your body to load up like that?

Giving credit to Darwinian Evolution By Natural Selection would be scientifically literate, as opposed to, uh, illiterate. That's just science.

@@inappropriatejohnson BULLSHIT its Talent gifted by God its credit Because Dominance in the sport has gone from Fnland to russia to USA then Mexico to Various African Countries Motivated by Poverty recently with humility & simple Life styles dominant in distance running

No way.

Next *Female world record holder

@@mathieudube6907 doubt can prove healthy. however, in this case, it's like hoping against hope.

A thing mu?

@@alexwilliamsmotivates not really sure what your philosophising about but to me its pretty simple. Shes a very good hurdler. As such she has optimised her technique and does not break stride to jump. Top hurdlers now days should only be dropping 1-1.5 seconds between 400mH and 400m flat. I think she could be a 48.5 flat runner which could get her an olympic gold but not close to the WR.

It will be quite the achievement if she manages to break the record once.

She does 48.0 in practice every time.

@@efisgpr Does she? What's your source?

Stop the dreaming

​@@noelbartley1084 100% realistic

No she dose not. Shes a great hurdler and could potentially be the best 400m flat runner in the world. But the WR is not realistic.

@@mathieudube6907 neither was a sub 51 second 400IM 2 years ago

@@trackman411 thats ridiculous. Hurdles have historically been a novelty in track and field. It is only recently that 1. World class sprinters have started hurdling and 2. 400m hurdlers have used the science of short sprint hurdling in optimising the 400m hurdles events. She's clearly not juiced up on drugs and does not have any DSD characteristics. Those are the only things that will see the womens 400m flat WR taken down in the near future.

Sydney competition is herself. Not in same league tbh.😊 She is going for open 400 WR and Olympic Gold!!!!🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤

Yeah Bob the Chemist won't fail her.

The greatest white hope

@@undisputedtruth6176 Huh?

I bet that was an experience to witness live.

Don't forget Femke.

Hope Salwa Eid Naser also can add to the push. Should be great for Sydney. Abby Steiner possibility in the mix also.

She is on just as much juice as Flo Jo so i am not surprised...

@@MrKveite1 As was oc also Marita Koch

All top athletes are more or less, Flo Jo just took it a step further and died because of it... @@clato74

Thats not how it works. The races don’t transfer that simple

That's a good point

not so sure we'd have to ask edwin moses

It won't be decades. They prepared Bol to get it by giving her the speed and working on the alternating hurdle pattern required. It'll last two or three years if Bol keeps working on it.

What happen?

Femke's problem is for flat speed - Sidney is a good 2-3 seconds faster. She'll have her hands full with Britton Wilson because right now they're neck-and-neck. Wilson is only going to get faster and stronger. I'm not sure that Bol will ever be able to beat people who are just naturally faster than she is unless they have an off day. Sidney could be like watching everyone admire Michael Johnson's backside for a decade...if she chooses to run that long.

@@jollymolly2521Wilson will be gased by USAs. Her greatness will be seen after she goes pro

@@jollymolly2521 no woman running is a problem for Sydney. Flat foot speed is fine but can it translate into running 50.68 like Syd can. When any woman can come close to running under 51.50 then she may have a problem.

Femke is not nearly as fast as Syd at any distance. She broke Femke's pointless 300mH WR en route to her 50.68....imagine if she had put everything into the first 300. Also, that indoor 400 by Femke was nearly matched by Brit Wilson like 2 weeks later (0.14) and Syd is faster than both of them by a lot. And the 500? I saw Syd jog a 1:09 500 in NYC in January 2019 with no one pressing her ......and laying off the gas even more the last 100....and that is a very tight track. She was not breathing hard at ALL when it was over. She was 19. That was almost 4 1/2 years ago. And of course, Femke is several levels lower in the 60, 100 and 200. Syd is just way faster and way more explosive. She even long jumped 18'6" at 14 and 20'6" at 17.....without focusing on it. Then, she was world class in the 400mH at 14, too. She is just way more talented and way FASTER. And only 5 months older.....with lots of global accolades 🥇 and much more on the way in Budapest, Paris, Birmingham...etc. Femke has 0 global golds. Femke has 0 wins against Syd. Femke has never even been close to Syd at the finish...ever. She is good. Syd is way better.

Syd also did 22.39 at 18 years old......blazing fast. That is faster than Shaunae at 18, for example.

3-4 seconds faster

@@juliaanna9076 Karsten Warholm ran 45.05 over 400m after running 46.87 in the 400m hurdles so at their level of performance I don't think Sidney could run 3-4 seconds faster. Especially early in the season.

For her 2 seconds. The old rule of thumb doesn’t hold as we’ve seen with Karsten. My guess is 48.90 for her opener. Bobby will sharpen her up for world, then we’ll see how close she gets this year.

She’s a pro who has run open 400m’s in her life. She doesn’t need you telling her how to pace herself. She’s in shape shape, not your shape, hers. Have you ever run 400mH? Do you know how tough that is as opposed to a 400m flat? It’s way worse she just makes it look easy.

@@trackgrad08 how could u read what i commented and think i was criticising her or telling her what to do? there are different strategies that i was pointing out and each strategy requires different training, just like training for the 400mh is different to 400m flat, i wasnt saying what strategy she and her coach should work on as its immaterial to me i just want her to do well any way she can, try reading and parsing the information before jumping to conclusions and you will look less foolish next time

I'm in lockstep with you on every point you just made pards 100 percent !!!

He can't help it with the superlatives. I may be wrong, but I think McLaughlin beat Muhammad in their very next race, as was to be expected.

Yeah and Syd was barely 20.

Yeah, he’s rife with hyperbole, but good videos.

@@bartgoodellpersonaltrainin6279 True - high quality and very timeous. Much better than Flotrack.

I’ve been talking about this in general. This sport in my opinion should be doing much better. But its hard, the most important athletes for the growth of the sport barely run. Everyone wants to hide their cards. They have so much expectations on them, so maybe they rather not run than to run and not run a fast time.

​@@ajollypanda4175 Yeah, I can nod in agreement with all you said. One thing I hate though is that it's the rare few in T&F who actually have million dollar contracts that so easily get away with hiding. It's like the NBA over the last 5-10 years where the guys making $30-50M sit out games every week or two for "Personal reasons". Athletes that make the HUGE money can choose to do what they want to, whatever they can get away with. Not like they all need to race as often as Abby Steiner but they do have a little bit more of an obligation to the fans that make them into millionaires.

too busy having them in the lab...

With the history kersee has keeping athletes away from competition doesn't inspire confidence....

@@HandsomeJelly Glad you mention Abby Steiner---she raced over 50 times last year!

She works extra hard on her hurdling though.. Like running 60 meters leading with the " wrong leg"

Her 400mH was 52.75 at that time, a 2.1 second improvement. Apply that to 50.07 and you get 47.97.

Yup. She's not only faster, but a lot stronger physically. You can just see it on her physical frame. This 23 year old Sydney would beat the 18 year old Sydney by a lot.

@@tfmarketing12 zi could see it when she was doing the drills with more power and focus than anyone else.

@@dennisrobinson8008 too bad it doesn’t work that way in track and field. Warholm the men’s 400m hurdle record holder is the perfect example of how your way of thinking is flawed.

​@@cross6588 Exactly

WHAT CHALLENGE? 🤔 They have no chance.

@@efisgpr 🤡

Huh

The 400 is a beast.. and I agree it's the hardest... I used to dred it too. But I believe an Elite Quarter miler is truly the most complete a track runner there can be... Look at Fred Kerley and Micheal Norman. Look at Allyson Felix and Abby Steiner, and Sherika Jackson started off as a 400m competitor In college there are two guys that are great 400 runners than can challenge first place in every event. The quarter miler's are the true evolved ones✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

@@dc7236 I think that Felix started out as a 100/200 sprinter and stretched to the 400 later in her career.

Come now, isn't the toughest event the one that an athlete just ran the best effort possible at the time.

800m is the one will kill you if you get it wrong.

@@durhamsmith9343 it's the hardest to be competitive at. You have to avg a 10.9 per 100 meters to to even be in contention for gold... That crazy endurance

I think in order to be seen as a great athlete, you actually have to race. I wanna see her on the track like my opinion for the greatest female athlete I've even seen in Femke Bol. Not only does Femke run fast she actually races and can be found on the track! She ran all sorts of indoor events too, even a 200m and 500m. I think that's what makes her great! Honestly, these 2 woman are why I started watching track again. Add in Abby Steiner and they are the women to revive the sport!

49.13 now.

​@@arsenioseslpodcast3143 So....only 1.2 faster than Syd's time with 10 hurdles in the way? Cool, Syd is gonna smoke her.

​@@dennisrobinson8008 So, only 1.55 faster than Syd did it with hurdles? No match for Syd...

@@efisgpr we won't know.

I agree completely regarding taking on pressure to achieve a time in the quarter that to my eyes is so obviously artificial. Throwing out both Koch and Kratchlatova's races I'm not sure where the next lowest time is but feel certain that if it is above 48 flat Sydney will be the legitimate owner of the 400m world record come Budapest

You don’t have proof though…30 years maybe people will speculate the same about the 400mh record.

@@ajollypanda4175 I don't need a proof, that's a known fact that German athletes took steroids and if you look Marita she is like a man (as Yarmila Kratochrilova too although she is a Czech). Greetings from Serbia, home of great athletes! ;-)

@@matthewberkin5924 Sorry mate, doesn't understand slang, I am Slavic. ;-)

Femke was 1.57 seconds BEHIND Sydney, there is no competition. She is first and Femke far behind her!

@@virgilius7036 True dat. However, you can argue that Sydney's hurdling technique was quite a bit better than Femke's. I read that Bol is working on that...basically trying to emulate Sydney's step pattern. It will be interesting to see how much Bol can improve on her 400mh times. Still believe that Sydney has an edge in talent despite Bol being very impressive.

Two babes 🍑🍑

Not unless athing/ Sydney, and a few other ppl are all sick that day...

Paulino of the DR will be her biggest challenger.

​@@gpipeline I think femke bol.

​@@actie-reactie She'll be 10m back....or 15 AS ALWAYS

​@@gpipeline 😂 Syd i smoking Paulino for sure

She’s the great white hope

​@@undisputedtruth6176 you mean femke bol....

@@undisputedtruth6176 Sydney Mclaughlin is not white!! She's a 100% black girl/woman. Lol. Any % of black blood you have makes u black Undisputed. But the young lady is obviously black, there's no confusion there, all her characteristics are black.

Undisputed, maybe you mean Abby Steiner. She's great, not at Sydney's level yet but she's a great young athlete. And she's white. But she also runs the 100 and 200, not the 400 like Syd.

Yeah Femke Bol could be called the great white hope. She's worthy, a stellar talent and a fierce competitor. But let's see them go at it in 2023 and 2024. Athing, Sydney, and Femke, plus Milan and the little Bahrainian.

Femke is 1.57 BEHIND Sydney. She only wins when the latter is not there!

Not in 400m flat

Man

No comparison! When she beats SMLs hurdle record then they should race.

😂Femke😂

@@efisgpr and that’s funny why?

​​@@EclecticSundries Because he hate Femke unfortunaly. His behaviour is like a Child.

​​@@EclecticSundries because of American fanboyism. Completely misplaced as usual. We should be happy with a field this stacked to make these races more interesting. Bol is going to run the 400mH on june 2nd in Florence and the flat 400 2 days later. Very curious to see what she has in store for this season.

Not Femke, she is to far behind Sydney!

how do you know that , nobody has seen her race in months .. only God knows whether or not she is in shape to even run with decency

That is true, but nobody had seen her run for months last year when she opened her season with a 51.69!

until she opens any given season , all comments are just especulations

​@@MrLuis85698 😂 wanna bet? I like 💰

@@efisgpr I see ... how much you wanna bet , in the name of money and for the sake of the sports 😭🙈

maybe, but the dutch girl smashing the indoor 400 record and the the 500m indoor record in the winter might make it a competitive season 49.2 with tight bends is pretty phenomenal

She’s the great white hope

We will see if femke bol can step up just a bit more.... than sydney has her hands full....

She ran 50.51 in Doha (5th May) and she was working hard for it. So not a great opening but she did win the race and to be fair she usually starts the season slow(ish).

Syd did 50.07 in the rain as a teenager 5 years ago. Once she lines up, Paulino has no chance.

Yeah but when? She dropped outta the LA meet.

@@mombojom3 ayyyy Raestake alumni..haha. Yea I just seen that to. Her and Mu out. Soon enough we will see greatness

EXCELLENT

I got Abby, Brit, Athing and Syd. Dream Team 2.0, following the monster Tokyo 🗼 squad 🥇

Those times from the 80's from Soviet Bloc countries were, lets say 'assisted' by their government programmes, doctors and chemicals now banned.

Yes the great white hope

​@@undisputedtruth6176 she is half black 🤡 🤡