“I watch you and I like to watch you,” 6-year-old Alaya Armbrister told Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone when the two met at the Jennifer Hudson Show. However, things weren’t too different for the four-time Olympic gold medalist when she was around Armbrister’s age. The young track and field prodigy had big dreams, but it was the 2008 Olympics that truly gave birth to a dream.

In her book Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith, McLaughlin-Levrone explained how one race featuring Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross changed her life. Just as Armbrister considers McLaughlin-Levrone as one of her heroes, the 400m hurdler considered Felix and Richards-Ross as hers. It’s what they did in Beijing that led to the eight-year-old deciding her future.

“I was eight years old, sitting on a small stool in our living room, enamored by the spectacle of the women’s 4-by-400-meter relay.” wrote the author. She described leaving closer to the TV in anticipation as the starting gun went off. In the blink of an eye, the ladies representing Team USA exploded off the blocks, and the relay was underway.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone confessed imagining herself “running beside Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross, track icons who took and kept the lead for the United States that day,” in her autobiographical book. “I jumped up and cheered, pumping my fists in the air,” added the Olympic champion recalling how reacted as Team USA won a close-fought final.

The women’s 4x400m finals at the Beijing Olympics were intense and not for the faint-hearted. By the time Allyson Felix took the baton in the second leg, Team USA was not leading the race. However, the then-400m world leader quickly put her team in the front. Despite her efforts, Russia reclaimed the lead that Felix had fought for during the third leg, leaving it all up to Sanya Richards-Ross to secure the victory.

Richards-Ross started the closing leg in the final position and gradually closed the gap. However, it still came down to the final stretch, where the American had to dig deep in the final 60m to emerge victorious. “I’m going to do that… I’m going to win a gold medal at the Olympics.” Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone told her mother as she saw her heroes earn gold for the U.S. Yet when she got that opportunity to make that dream a reality, it all fell apart.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s Olympic dream turned into a nightmare

The 25-year-old immersed herself in training and rose through the ranks at a prodigious pace. It resulted in the former world champion making it to the U.S. Olympic trials even before reaching senior year in high school. And yet, fear and anxiety replaced excitement and ambition for McLaughlin-Levrone. In fact, it got so bad that she called her father and asked “Can I please pull out?”

While the Queen of the 400m hurdles gathered herself and qualified, things didn’t change in Rio. “Partway through my semifinal, my will to win left me. Instead of my usual surge in the last seconds, I let up,” the world record holder confessed. However, the sprinter also understood that she wasn’t mentally prepared for the grandest stage at 16.

It took Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone four more years to truly prove herself. The 25-year-old entered the Tokyo Olympics as the world record holder and went on to improve her record in the finals. But she wasn’t finished there. She also reached the 4x400m finals alongside none other than her idol, Allyson Felix. As an eight-year-old, McLaughlin-Levrone had dreamed of running beside Felix, and in 2021, that dream became a reality when she earned the 4x400m gold alongside her idol.