Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone AMAZES once again, her 47.78 beats Marileidy Paulino (47.98) in classic 400m final at 2025 World Championships

TOKYO – Watch Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in any race and you will see that she is special. Watch her in a global final and you will see why she is one of the greatest athletes to ever step foot on a track.

The latest evidence came on a damp Thursday night at National Stadium in the final of the women’s 400 meters at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. It was a race two years in the making, one hyped beforehand as the greatest 400-meter field ever assembled. So of course Sydney delivered. She always does on the biggest stages.

It had been almost 40 years since the world had seen a woman run under 48 seconds for 400 meters. On Thursday, we saw two. McLaughlin-Levrone, running aggressively from lane five, clocked 47.78, the second-fastest time in history, to become the first woman to win world titles in the flat 400m and 400m hurdles. Just behind her, the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino, the reigning world and Olympic champion, followed SML home in 47.98. Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser ran 48.19 for bronze, a time that only four women in history have ever bettered. Unfortunately for Naser, two of them were in this race.

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In all, the race produced the best marks ever for 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th as all eight finalists broke 50.00 for just the second time in history.

McLaughlin-Levrone is so focused that it is rare to see any sort of emotion on her face when she is on the track. She eschews the usual smile and wave during pre-race introductions, staring at the ground with a hard, serious expression as she shifts her weight from side to side. Sometimes, though, you can catch a glimpse of her true thoughts in the instant after she crosses the finish line.

Six weeks ago, it had been frustration when, after winning the US 400m title in Eugene, the clock displayed the time 48.90. She had been chasing Sanya Richards-Ross’s 48.70 American record for three years, and this was yet another near-miss after running 48.74 in 2023 and 48.75 in 2024. But she did not have to worry about the American record on Thursday, having already run 48.29 to break it in Tuesday’s semifinals. The ease with which she accomplished the feat, backing off the gas in the final 30 meters, suggested she had much more in store for the final.

When she looked at the clock in Tokyo on Thursday after dispatching a game Paulino, who ran bravely from lane 9 and made her work for it on the home straight, McLaughlin-Levrone’s face showed disbelief. Her hands reflexively shot up to her head in shock. After congratulating her competitors, she squatted on the track, shaking her head as she, along with the rest of the 57,327 fans in National Stadium, processed exactly how fast she had just run.

“You know it’s there, you put the work in. It’s just when you see it come to fruition, it’s always a bit of disbelief,” said McLaughlin-Levrone. “I knew it was going to be a really fast race, great competition. Just to see it all come together, there’s always just a bit of awe and wonder.”

Results , race replay and full analysis appear below

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A remarkable championship record

Over the years, McLaughlin-Levrone has drawn criticism for her reluctance to race during the regular season – her last Diamond League 400 hurdles race was in 2019 – but has made up for it by peaking at championships better than any athlete in history. SML has now run five global finals in her life. In the first, she ran the #3 performance in history. On Thursday, she ran the #2 performance in history. In the other three, she has set a world record. 

With the versatility to switch between the flat events and the hurdles and her success as a teen – she made her first Olympic team at 16 – SML has long been one of the sport’s great talents. But it is her ability to raise her game at the biggest championships that has come to serve as her defining characteristic. There are athletes who have won more gold medals at championships, but few who have ever been able to produce as many historic performances when it matters the most. Usain Bolt set four world records in global finals. Mondo Duplantis has three and counting after his 6.30m clearance in the pole vault on Monday. That is the sort of historic company SML has placed herself in.

And when she breaks a record, she often smashes it.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s five World/Olympic finals

Bold = McLaughlin-Levrone owned previous world record

And yet, the table above still does not do her justice. Officially, 47.78 ranks McLaughlin-Levrone second all-time, but many view tonight’s tiem as the real world record considering the official record of 47.60 was set in 1985 by Marita Koch of East Germany, a country known to have perpetuated a state-sponsored doping regime and documents tying Koch to doping exist.

Thursday’s race was also the latest classic in what has become a track famous for its one-lap races. At the 2021 Olympics, both Rai Benjamin and Dalilah Muhammad ran under the previous world record in the 400 hurdles only to be beaten by an even faster time (with SML handing Muhammad her defeat). Tonight, Paulino ran the third-fastest time ever and lost.

Incredible Tokyo races

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SML (and track fans everywhere) is rewarded after taking on the challenge of a new event

Thursday’s final was a long time coming. After McLaughlin-Levrone set her fourth world record in the 400 hurdles to win gold at the 2022 Worlds in Eugene, track fans wanted to see her tackle a new challenge, and she obliged by switching to the flat 400 meters in 2023. In June of that year, she was beaten by Paulino in Paris – her only defeat in a 400 or 400H race since 2019. But fans would have to wait more than two years for the rematch.

It was supposed to come at the 2023 Worlds in Budapest, but SML withdrew from the championships with a knee injury as Paulino won gold. McLaughlin-Levrone returned to the hurdles in the Olympic year of 2024, so we didn’t get to see it then, either. Most recently, the two were announced as 400m headliners at Grand Slam Track’s Los Angeles event in June. But that was cancelled just two weeks before the meet due to the series’ financial problems.

McLaughlin-Levrone decided to focus on the flat 400 in 2025. And with Paulino only getting faster (she ran 48.17 in last year’s Olympic final) and Naser running under 49 four times during the regular season in 2025, suddenly there was genuine uncertainty about whether McLaughlin-Levrone would be able to win the world title – something that would have been absent had she elected to stay in the 400 hurdles.

McLaughlin-Levrone saw the doubters online, the ones who felt she would not be able to win in the flat event the way she had in the hurdles. But she acknowledged that the doubt was a good thing for the sport.

“I see things online,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “I see what people say. And ultimately, that’s okay. I think that’s what makes the sport great. They want to see great matchups, they want to see people be uncomfortable.”

Because she prepares for the major championships at the expense of everything else, the track world does not get to witness McLaughlin-Levrone’s true talent as much as that of her peers. But no one peaks better. And when Sydney does go all-out, there is nothing else like it in the sport.

“I think today was a really great race for track & field,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “And I’m grateful to put myself in that position and to bring an exciting event to our sport.”

Post-race interview with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone does it again – 47.78 as Paulino also breaks 48

Shortly after the race, we broadcast a live reaction show from Tokyo on our social media channels. Watch it below or catch it on demand ad-free as a podcast by joining our Supporters Club.

More from Tokyo: 6 thoughts on Thursday’s Worlds action: Noah Lyles sends a 19.51 statement as US 800m champs Donavan Brazier and Roisin Willis are eliminated

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