Sydney McLaughlin at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo (© Deca Text & Bild)
World 400m hurdles record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will race without the barriers and test herself in the 400m flat when Wanda Diamond League action heads to the Meeting de Paris on 9 June.
The Olympic and world champion is among a number of US stars named for the event at the Charlety stadium. As well as the already-announced Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway and Devon Allen, the meeting will feature global gold medallists Katie Moon and Sandi Morris in a top-class pole vault clash, Olympic champion Valarie Allman in the discus, and Olympic and world silver medallist Rai Benjamin in the 400m hurdles.
McLaughlin-Levrone improved her own world 400m hurdles record to 50.68 in Oregon last year – a time that is highly competitive for one lap of the track without there being 10 barriers in the way. The 23-year-old last raced the 400m in 2021 and she clocked her PB of 50.07 in 2018.
“There’s still so much to be done in the 400m hurdles, but I also haven’t run the 400m truly competitively since college, so there’s room for improvement there,” she said last year ahead of being named World Athlete of the Year.
As well as a return to 400m flat racing, Paris offers a return to Diamond League competition for McLaughlin-Levrone, who last raced on athletics' premier one-day circuit in 2019.
Her competition at the Charlety stadium will include Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino, the Olympic and world 400m silver medallist who has a PB of 48.99 and who claimed the Diamond Trophy in the discipline last year.
Paulino won at Diamond League meetings in Doha, Rabat, Lausanne and Zurich last year and also took top spot at the Meeting de Paris in 2021.
