Getting into a relationship is always a time of great emotional upheaval for all of us. While many of us have experienced such unnerving times in our lives, it can be surprising to learn that even our favorite stars aren’t always immune to such duress. While Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone‘s dominance on the tracks has become an urban legend for the fans, even the Olympic gold medalist can’t outrun the dark clouds of skepticism.

With four gold medals at the grandest sporting event in the world, you’d think McLaughlin-Levrone has her head in place. And yet, despite all her achievements, the fear of heartbreak also made its impact on her life. As the track celebrity reflects on the years passed, she can’t help but remember how those days of uncertainty made her clench her breath.

In her book Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith, the New Jersey native talked about how she was hesitant to go into a relationship with her then-boyfriend Andre Levrone. There, she noted how Andre made her feel special by his words and actions, and how she felt loved like never before. “This relationship can’t be real, I thought,” she confesses in her book, as McLaughlin revealed how the football wide receiver saw beauty in her, “inside and out.“

However, her past experiences made it difficult to see things without any worries. “It was completely different from any relationship I’d been in before…it seemed too good to be true,” elaborates how Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had a hard time believing in the love that Andre professed for her. While the duo spent four days knowing and bonding with each other, her past refused to let go of Sydney’s thoughts, however hard she tried.

“The old fears returned. I was terrified of getting hurt again. The last breakup had nearly destroyed me. Now here I was almost twelve months later, risking it all again, this time with a guy who seemed amazing” Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone writes in her book, and her quivering emotions can almost be felt. But the athlete assured herself that this is part of God’s plan and she must go with it irrespective of what she thinks. It’s probably this faith in her own fate that has ensured Levrone’s name is etched among the greatest stars of track and field.

Fate didn’t hold back on offering a fortune to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s first stint on the grand stage at the 2016 Rio Games, didn’t go as she would have liked it. In the women’s 400mH race, she finished 17th and was naturally devastated by the result. “Maybe I had the physical gifts to reach the finals or possibly even win a medal in Rio, but I was not mentally prepared to do what it was going to take,” she acknowledges without hesitation. However, she didn’t let the setback break her spirit and instead kept her eyes on the ultimate prize.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she returned stronger and bagged two gold medals in both her two 400m events. She went on to defend both these in Paris earlier this year at the 33rd Olympics and sealed her status among the greatest Olympians of all time. While Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone didn’t participate in enough Diamond League meets to qualify for the season finale this year, the organizers still made sure to laud Lclaughlin-Levrone for her emphatic Parisian campaign.

“To avoid any confusion or misunderstanding, we do confirm that 400m hurdles Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will be competing at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme, but not as part of the Wanda Diamond League Final races,” folks over at Diamond League announced before the final race in Brussels. But will the experience of how things eventually fall into place give Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone to finally live her life with Andre without the lingering thought of heartbreak? Only time will tell.