Serious question: why do so many people on here have disdain towards Sydney?

"obnoxious...and has a condescending attitude to everything and everyone." Sounds like Jakob, who is one of the most popular runners on this site.

The people saying it’s because of religion can’t be right. This hostility existed before her outward expressions of faith. My guess is the people have jealous insecurity to someone uber successful. Or they are just nasty people with hardened hearts.

People have different reaction to men and women with that type of personality. And that's not limited to this message board.

Yeah, I did as well.

One thing I noticed from several vids I’ve seen, including one in which the “Influencer” recorded herself at every mile, is that there was very little crowd support.

People feel she wastes the gift she has been given by running/appearing so little.

ië Edwin Moses streak would not be so impressive if it was only 8. Folks like Femke Bol because she runs everything.

Add in she chose Kersee as coach, despite the obvious clouds over her results that would bring.

Lastly the God stuff doesn't help.

I dislike her for several reasons

1) super boring: she wins and there’s no excitement, I find her personality dull, not funny, makes it not fun for me to watch her

2)doesn’t challenge herself: pretty much never races, doesn’t try the double, doesn’t do the mixed relay

3) religion: many athletes thank god. Her pastor told women being abused by their husbands Jesus wanted them to suffer and if they got divorced they would be shunned from the church. When one woman left her husband (who went to jail for child abuse and molestation) they held a service shaming her. He was against gay people saying it’s a bad choice they’re making

4)no team praise: Anna cockrell gave Dalilah such praise, even femke speaks highly of Sydney all the time. Sydney talks about herself, and sometimes Bobby . She’s not on a team training with others.

Her jaw is bigger and a lot more severe, goes along with her rather oddly dense musculature, which in person is gives off the uncanny valley feeling. Straight out of a vial.

Serious answer?

Jealousy.

« Wasting her gift ». She’s American, and much like Athing, she runs an event in a time that is within the realm of a lot of the guys here. (Maybe not hurdles but 400m and 800m). I think there’s a level of frustration, unconscious and deep perhaps, of like—look at the gifts she has been given, look at the attention she gets. It’s so easy to imagine one of us in her place, and to think she should do differently—what we might do differently.

Not saying the others reasons posited don’t have merit, but I do think this is a serious reason why, and not often acknowledged.

Can you share examples of Sydney displaying a condescending attitude? I've seen many of her interviews; I've never seen her be condescending to anyone. I've also had the pleasure of meeting her in person. She was nice to me.

Her relative lack of celebratory joy when she wins should not detract from how people view her.

I believe she is a rather humble, private, reserved and modest person. It doesn't seem to be her style to publicly share her emotions that much, including after winning races.

As she herself has stated, she feels physically and emotionally exhausted right after races, and just does not have the energy to wildly celebrate. If you have ever really raced a 400 you know what it is like. We can't question her effort given her results and the fact that she has repeatedly run times no one else has ever come close to.

Contrast her lack of celebration with some other runners who win races and instantly break into crazy celebration as if the race took nothing out of them. Some people accuse those other runners of being doped to extremes.

In a way, her lack of celebration shows deep respect to other athletes in her races. By outwardly succumbing to exhaustion after her races, she indicates that she has extended maximum effort just as they have. Her reactions dismiss any thoughts that she is innately privileged or superior. Her post-race reactions imply that she is much more similar to other athletes than different.

1) "super boring": That's a common criticism of her. Interestingly, I've seen others on this board criticize athletes for celebrating too much and not showing any signs of pain or fatigue from the race they just completed (which is suspected to be an indication of doping). Sydney, on the other hand, shows the effect of pushing her body to its absolute limit. She described the pain she felt when she broke the 51-second barrier for the first time as the worst pain of her life. She went into shock afterwards.

If you want to see a more engaging side of her personality, you might appreciate the video interview linked below.

2) "doesn't challenge herself": I have several thoughts on this one:

• I suppose you didn't watch the GST Philly meet, where she challenged herself by running in the 100m and 100m hurdles. She had committed to run the 200m and 400m at GST LA before it got cancelled.
• Perhaps you're not aware that she's challenging herself by contesting the 400m at the world championships this month.
• Doubling in the 400m and 400m hurdles at global championships is not possible given that the events overlap in the schedule.
• Team USA doesn't put its best 400m runners in the mixed relay. I don't see other top American long sprinters getting criticized for not running that relay.
• It's impossible for a woman to rub sub-51 in the 400m hurdles without challenging herself.

3) "religion": Your point about John MacArthur is true, and I share your concern about him, although it should be noted he passed away this summer. I don't know what her stance is on those issues (Christians don't necessarily agree with everything their pastor says). If you've seen her make any comments on those issues, I'd be curious to see them. My understanding is she now considers her husband to be her personal pastor.

4) "no team praise": Not sure what difference it makes if she's part of a training group or not. Her setup clearly works for her. Grant Fisher went on his own, and most people seem to agree that was a good move for him.

Sydney said this about her 4x400m relay teammates (article linked below): “It’s always amazing to run with those ladies. We are really together now and we have our own training situations. Representing the USA together and getting that gold in Paris was just a really special moment."

She said this about Femke (same article linked below): “I think every athlete is focused on themselves, to be honest, because you still have to jump over those 10 hurdles. Obviously Femke is a wonderful competitor and there are so many women in our event that are just getting faster and faster. So you always have to show respect for your opposition because you never know what anyone is going to produce on any given day.

“But like I said, it’s you against you. And you have to be prepared to be at your highest level when you step on the track, because our event is going to heights I don’t think any of us imagined – which is amazing because we are all just pushing one another to be the best. And I am really happy to be a part of this transition.”

Sydney isn't perfect (nobody is). I would love to see her run more DL races. I just think a lot of the criticisms she gets are unfair or untrue.

worldathletics.org

World track athlete of the year Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s 2024 – in numbers | World Athletics

A numerical look back at Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's 2024 season

Link:worldathletics.org/awards/news/sydney-...

I don't hate her, I hate her coach. I think he's a manipulative doper and it's all about him. A lot like Salazar. Always wondered why Kersee "develops" only females and never males.

So if Bol didn't exist you don't think people would have issues with Sydney?

Disliking her for not attempting the 400h + 400 double seems absurd to me

Do you know how demanding that would be?

It's not like the 100m + 200m

She ain't be liberal enough.

Very similar with me. Easily the biggest regret of my sports rooting lifetime is that I strongly supported Sydney through 2021.

Others have touched on things that I would have mentioned. But here are two more, both related to the Diamond League.

I respect the sports journalists and always watch the Diamond League pressers. Two years when Sydney finally showed up at a Diamond League meet in Paris, instead of having the confidence to field unknown questions from those media members, Sydney planted a family member amongst them. He asked a softball question. Sydney immediately responded with, "that's a great question," and then launched a lengthy canned self-serving response.

IMO, the moderator should have cut it off immediately. I was furious. Unmitigated gall.

Then last season Sydney assumed she could barnstorm into the Diamond League final despite not competing in a Diamond League race all year. And she didn't ask, as Jakob did this year and Warholm did in 2022. Sydney negotiated a spot in both the 200 and 400 of the Diamond League final in Brussels. It was announced that she would compete in both. Only after deserved backlash did Brussels back down and place her in a contrived 200 and 400 prior to the main session.

Sydney understood how the Diamond League points system works. She was Diamond League champion in 2019. Only a low class person would disregard all of that and think she was above it.