Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone admits in her new book to throwing her Rio 2016 semi-final on purpose

honestly, i don't care that she did it, but i wish she didn't write about it. we have a generation that is gonna think it's perfectly normal to just say f-it and bail on competition. they are glorifying it at this point, after the whole Biles thing.

Osaka was the OG.

Why did she even do the Trials then?

She tried to back out of the Trials but her coach and her dad wouldn't her.

No, she wouldn't have medalled. Her PR her junior year was only around 54.6 or something like that. She didn't run 54 low until the following year, 2017. And she didn't break 54 until 2 years after the Olympics.

I understand that anxiety can be crippling for some, and should be dealt with on a case by case basis. Almost everybody has SOME anxiety for racing, but it is a healthy amount for most. Most people will become more resilient for facing their fears and tackling an obstacle.

I wonder if she said it turned out to be beneficial to go through the trials and prelims at least. It could have been what she needed to help her succeed through those rounds the next time through. Some people just need to get through something once before they can be their best self in it the next time.

Sydney is simultaneously the most incredible athlete and boring, vanilla human being

You do realize that people sometimes write BS just to sell books, right? They need to make it interesting or no one is going to buy it. Add something "controversial" and the sales go up. Publisher probably read the final draft and thought, "BORING! You need to spice this up. How about making up a story about how you ditched a huge race due to anxiety? That is a big seller right now thanks to Biles and Osaka!"

I don't believe her for a minute and I am a huge McLaughlin fan.

Let me tell you how these autobiographies work.

Publisher wants a zinger. Publisher wants something to talk about when writer is invited on talk shows. Publisher pushes and pushes writer. There has to be something! Abusive father. Something or we aren't going to be able to go through with this.

I do not believe it. She didn't write the book anyway.

That was the logic that her coach and her dad used to get her to compete in the 2016 Trials, even though she didn't want to do it.

I believe it 100%. Sydney had severe anxiety problems in high school, and she had a mental breakdown before the 2016 Trials.

I've always thought that she purposely performed poorly at the Rio semis. Even in high school she was always a very strong finisher, but in Rio she shut it down and took it easy in the home stretch. That's the only time in a big race in high school that she ever did that.

So yes, she ran poorly on purpose to avoid the pressure of an Olympic final.

In 2016 she didn't throw anything on purpose. She wasn't anywhere near the level in HS that she has been the last 4 years.

She is lying. She just got beat. Its OK, she was just a little kid in high school.

You obviously weren't following her in high school, weren't aware of the severe anxiety issues she was dealing with, and don't remember how much she slowed down at the end of her 2016 Olympics semi.

I really don't get how she puts so much pressure on herself. Especially in hs that sounds like bs. If you're the kid on the block nobody expects you to be winning right away. The race is less than 60 seconds long surely when the gun goes off the nerves dip and you run?

Frankly to put that much pressure on yourself is to believe that so many people care about how you and at the time no one did. Now I could understand it but there was no pressure on 16 yearold sydney.

I agree with this. at that age, getting there should be the prize. all the pressure should be gone for the race. no expectations. but that's not what she felt.

You're correct. No one was putting pressure on her in the 2016 Olympics.

But her problem wasn't external pressure. Her problem was internal anxiety.

Some people really struggle with anxiety and she is one of those people. Anxiety isn't logical. You can't just say to yourself "I shouldn't be anxious" and then the anxiety goes away.

She is now the 400h GOAT and she still struggles with anxiety, although fortunately it's not as bad as it was before.

I hope for her sake that one day she will eventually being able to solve that problem.

Honestly this isn't hard to believe at all. I know a district track meet and the Olympics are incomparable, but I did pretty much the same thing at a track meet during high school. Wouldn't at the time have called it "crippling anxiety" though, was just a scared 12 year old at my first district meet.