Track and field sports and football—Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone knows one or two things about those sports. Talking about track and field, she is one frontrunner to claim the tag of ‘legend.’ How? She has two Olympic golds in the women’s 400m hurdles. Also since the 2020 US Olympic trials, Sydney has obliterated the world record timing six times in the women’s 400m hurdles event. The last one came in the Paris Olympics. Hold on. Count her timings in the women’s 200m event. The 22.07-second timing set in the LA Grand Prix last year is on the list of all-time bests. Don’t those milestones establish her standard? Those do. But what about football? 

Well, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s husband, Andre, played for football clubs like the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars. So, the proud wife knows that sport as well. Now, don’t these features promote her as the perfect voice to explain the key differences between those sports? Someone thinks that she is the one to point out the differences. And the result? Here, those are. 

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone sheds light on the reality of sports 

In the YouTube podcast, Clearly Reformed, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone faced a question from Kevin, the host. It mentioned the features that keep track and field sports different from other popular American sports like football and basketball. The question opened the door for the 25-year-old. Subsequently, she claimed, “It’s [track and field] definitely a very individualized sport, compared to something like football or basketball. Most of your funding is going to come from your sports shoe sponsorship.” Sydney feels herself lucky as she has a sponsorship deal with New Balance. But that luck doesn’t cover areas like coaching, therapy, and a few more. She manages those needs on her own. In football and basketball, the players may not need to manage those on their own. Apart from these, there’s another factor that makes track and field an ‘individualized’ sport. 

It is about the funding. According to SML, “Track is not as popular as football or basketball so the funding is very different and some of the opportunities are very different, so it really is for a lot of people just the love of the sport.”

Her comments fuel the same payment debate where athletes keep continuing to play for the love of the sport. They don’t get the limelight or earn a meager sum. The presence of factors like those keeps pushing track and field sports toward the dark future. Both football and basketball don’t have such lagging factors. Moreover, because of the added popularity, the sports have resources to continue. But is there any option to revive Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s favorite sport? Here she took the name of a contest that she has been promoting since June last year. 

The unique contests can break the shackle 

This year, Grand Slam Track is coming with a massive prize pot. The contest will have four Slams and each Slam will give $100,000 to the champion athlete in each event. So, the athletes will get the opportunity to win $400,000 in a calendar by participating only in GST. Additionally, the events will have something for every contestant. They will also get promotional offers in the contest. Has anyone heard of a contest like this before? No. And it is not about GST anymore. The highest body of track and field sports, World Athletics, is bringing the World Athletics Ultimate Championships. 

The champions in the events at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships will earn $150,000. In 2023, the athletes took home $70,000 after winning the contests in the World Athletics Championships. But in 2026, there will be a massive jump. Somehow, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has contributed to such a revolution. How? 

In June 2024, she was the first signing in GST. Since then, the league has been headlined a lot of times. Moreover, big announcements started to come regarding the new pay structures of the contests. Sydney’s stature contributed to it massively. Even in September, in an interaction with Citius Mag, the New Jersey native was in full praise regarding GST’s introduction. She said, “I think it’s just going to be really cool to see that dynamic and see the sport grow and popularity, and so I’m excited to be a part of that.” In the podcast, Clearly Reformed as well, she continued to display a similar mood. She eventually laid out, “There are other races taking place every single year and I do think track is on the rise hopefully and it will continue to be until the LA Olympics so just excited to be a part of that.” Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is on the path to erasing the ‘individualized’ tag of track and field sports finally.