At the Grand Slam Track press conference, the room fell into a rare silence. Cameras clicked, reporters leaned forward, and the air held a strange kind of stillness. A three-time Olympic medalist, world record-breaker, and one of the fiercest hurdlers this sport has ever known leaned into the mic. This season, she said, will be her last. Just like that, the track world paused. A legend was preparing to bow out, and no one quite knew how to react.

News of Dalilah Muhammad’s decision was quick to ripple across the track world. This is the same woman who, on a rainy night in Tokyo, rewrote Olympic history from lane 2, blazing past champions and expectations alike.

Now, after a year away from the 400m hurdles, she returns to the Grand Slam Track stage not just to race. “It’s going to be it for me this year. I’m definitely going to; I think this will be it… I haven’t made an announcement or made it publicly known, but yeah, I’m thinking one and done…At a young age, you never know where it’s going to take you. I think I just always had that little something that I just wanted to keep going. I wanted to push those boundaries and push forward.” Her voice was calm, but the weight of the moment was undeniable. After all, it was her that became the youngest Olympic champion to break a 16-year-old record in 2019. In the 400-meter-hurdles race at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, Muhammad ran a blazing time of 52.20 seconds—0.14 seconds faster than Yuliya Pechonkina in 2003. No wonder social media lit up as soon as the news hit…

Track & field informant Owen wrote on X on April 3, “A trailblazer ❤️ Dalilah Muhammad 🇺🇸 announced at the @GrandSlamTrack press conference yesterday that she’ll be retiring at the end of the season 🫡”. And not just the online community, even the ones who’d seen the star gallop to success couldn’t hold back.

On the eve of the debut of Grand Slam Track in Kingston, Jamaica, where she announced the heartbreaking news—perhaps in the most symbolic passing of the baton we’ve ever seen—sat 2016 gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who didn’t hesitate to rise in tribute. For fans, for the sport, and for the athletes who looked up to her, this was a full-circle moment. An icon signaling her final lap. Sydney didn’t need a script. Her words came out with the ease of someone speaking from the heart. “Dalilah, you truly did just change the game for all of us, and I think just seeing you break that world record after so long of it being there just inspired all of us, and so it’s truly because of just the amazing talent you had that we are where we are now,” she said sitting next to Muhammad and 2019 World Championship bronze medalist Russell Clayton.

As an athlete, who’d never been handed the golden spoon, Muhammad’s career was a reminder of how she changed the world for her and others. The soon-retiring veteran’s journey had begun as a near-impossible dream without any sponsors, and her parents paying out of pocket. Notably, Muhammad’s mother served as a child protection specialist while her father worked as a Muslim Chaplain for the New York City Department of Correction and an adjunct professor of Islamic Studies at the New York Theological Seminary. She ran her first-ever Diamond Lague meet in 2013 in shorts and a tank top, bought from a clearance sale.

That same year, the young star not only won the US title by lowering her personal best in 400m hurdles from 56.04 to 53.83 but also earned a Nike sponsorship after earning silver at the 2013 World Championships.

At the Rio Olympics, three years later, Dalilah was already a hot favorite, as the world’s fastest by 1.08 seconds. As expected, she won gold at the event, making her the second American woman to ever win gold in the 400-meter hurdles. Currently, she’s the third-fastest woman in history behind McLaughlin-Levrone and Netherland’s Femke Bol.

For all the fierce races they ran against each other, this wasn’t about rivalry. This was reverence. It was Sydney, arguably the greatest 400m hurdler the world has ever seen, saying thank you to the woman who first shattered the ceiling.

The rivalry that raised the bar: Dalilah’s masterclass, and Sydney’s gratitude

Here’s the thing: Before Sydney ran 51.90 in the 2021 Olympic Trials, there was Dalilah, showing what was possible. Before Sydney dropped that unreal 50.65 at the 2024 Trials, there was Dalilah with her 52.16 and her Olympic gold in Tokyo, forcing the entire field, including Sydney, to elevate. Their history is one of mutual brilliance, where every record broken by Sydney had Dalilah’s fingerprints on it, too.

So when Sydney closed with a simple, “Thank you, and I truly, truly appreciate that,” it wasn’t just a farewell. It was a recognition. A baton passed not just in competition, but in legacy. Rewind to Doha, September 2019. The World Championships. Sydney McLaughlin came in laser-focused. Sharper, stronger, and hungrier than ever. She clocked a blistering 52.23, a time that, on almost any other stage, in almost any other year, would’ve secured her the gold.

But Dalilah Muhammad wasn’t ready to hand over the crown just yet. She blazed through the finish line in 52.16. Setting another world record. Another declaration that she was still the one to beat. Another heartbreak for Sydney, who had been chasing this dream since she was a teenager. Sydney didn’t shy away from the sting. In her book, Far Beyond Gold, she laid it all out with raw honesty: “My 52.88 time was one of the fastest I’d ever run, less than a half-second from Yulia Pechonkina’s sixteen-year-old record.”

That record was the dream. Dalilah didn’t just break it. She shattered it while Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone watched from second place. And the only word left was, “Shocked. Stunned. Confused.” After all, just how do you process something like that? How do you come back from thinking you’ve finally figured someone out? How do you come back from thinking you’ve finally figured someone out?

Only to realize you’ve underestimated their fire? Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone further continued, “Once I’d beaten Dalilah, I’d naively thought I knew what she had in the tank. Yet, she beat me. Not just beat me, but demolished me and took the record I had been dreaming of with her.” It wasn’t just a race. For Sydney, it became the moment that would redefine how high she’d have to climb. But what now? How will the final curtain call go? Let us know in the comments.