Could Sydney McLaughlin break the women’s 800m world record?

2:04 if she trained for it. I coached a kid to 48 in the 400 and he ran XC as training. He managed to run 17:15 so we focused on the 800 his senior year. He only ran 49 in the 400 and 1:59 in the 800.

Ah the Jeremy Wariner fans are back IN DA HOUSE!!!!!!

For the rest of us in the real world we remember the fact that Sydney is slower than Semenya over 400m and even she can't get close to the back of Kratochvílová's cajones for the WR

0/10 better luck next time

Is there something ironic about a woman who looks like a man running in meet named after a man who now looks like a woman?

Nope, nowhere near enough aerobic development.

The physiological ignorance displayed by users of this board can seem astounding, but it's really not far out of line with general scientific ignorance in the USA.

Sydney Believer wrote:

World Record, never, that event is for dopers and dudes. American Record, maybe if she trained for it.

I've seen too much antecdotal evidence of a pretty strong correlation between 400 hurdler talent and 800 meter talent over the years for me to not believe that Sydney could be a great 800 runner.

Sorry for the awkward wording. I'm trying to say I think she could be Ajee Wilson good if she wanted to be an 800 meter runner.

I'm going to believe that until she tries to be an 800 meter runner and fails. Since there is really no reason for her to try, I'll always believe it.

What, you just mentioned dopers and then you think McLaughlin to be Wilson good? The busted doper with the tainted meat excuse?? really?

Mclaughlin has a Semenya-like build. Something is not right there..

The year I ran 1.09.7 in the indoor 500m, I ran 1.58.2 outdoors.

Sydney could break the American record if she *wants* to. That's a big if. The 800m is all about the motivation.

The world record is probably untouchable. At least for a while....

What ever you can run in the 400m add 5 seconds and that's what you can come through in. The last lap is 59 seconds if you are super fit. That's the ceiling.

-Phoebe Wright

change my mind wrote:

Mclaughlin has a Semenya-like build. Something is not right there..

What?!

Double your best 400 time plus 3.5-7.5 seconds per lap, For Mclaughlin (50.07) it equals 1:47.14 -1:55.14

see chart at bottom.

No. wrote:

No. The record is held by a well known doper. No clean athlete can break it.

While I agree that Sydney will never break the 800m record, the same cannot be said for the 400m record. It is also held by a well known doper but I believe she COULD have a chance to break it if she races the open 400m. She has a lot of great years ahead of her … who knows what she will achieve before she retires? I think 47.60 could be within reach.

Sebcoe7 wrote:

Is there something ironic about a woman who looks like a man running in meet named after a man who now looks like a woman?

This had me laughing!

red glare wrote:

Nope, nowhere near enough aerobic development.

The physiological ignorance displayed by users of this board can seem astounding, but it's really not far out of line with general scientific ignorance in the USA.

With physiological ignorance comes ignorance and fear of gender and identity.

On a thread about McLaughlin the LRC bros disappointingly - but unsurprisingly - veer off into Semenya and Jenner territory. And not about their racing either.

How offensive that a man doesn't want to be a man. Or a woman doesn't meet your expectations of a woman. But wait, don't be too feminine and put on that makeup and put guys at a disadvantage on social media branding.

How triggered can you be.

lmfao she has never even ran the 800

ric flair woo wrote:

lmfao she has never even ran the 800

And she never will. It might be fun to talk about what she might be capable of in the 800m as long as you understand that she will never run one.

Syd the kid wrote:

She ran 500m in 69.64. All she would have to do is run 42-43 seconds for the last 300m and she would have record.

What do you think? Discus

So she ran 500m to exhaustion in 69.64s

That's 41.8s pace for 300m.

Yet you think she could just continue at that pace for another 300m?

Why?

Hounddogharrier wrote:

You forget she ran cross country in high school. An 800 would be right in her wheel house. The doped up record is beyond reach reach but she could run 1:55. Im thinking for Tokyo she is planning a Juantoreino 400 hurdles / 800 double, plus the 4x4. ???

HDH: You brought up S.M.'s high school XC as reference? S.M. was relatively awful at XC. There are sprinters who are competitive at 100 to 400, but at 600 they are relatively awful. If she has any 800m potential, S.M. should be able to race sub-87.5 600 metres right now.

ex-runner wrote:

Syd the kid wrote:

She ran 500m in 69.64. All she would have to do is run 42-43 seconds for the last 300m and she would have record.

What do you think? Discus

So she ran 500m to exhaustion in 69.64s

That's 41.8s pace for 300m.

Yet you think she could just continue at that pace for another 300m?

Why?

douglas burke wrote:

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/advice_frank52.html

Double your best 400 time plus 3.5-7.5 seconds per lap, For Mclaughlin (50.07) it equals 1:47.14 -1:55.14

see chart at bottom.

Everyone consistently misquotes the late Horwill on this matter. He knew the conversion matters immensely on the type of athlete.

From the same article:

"Those possessing superior speed at 400m, in the range from 44 to 46 seconds who race mainly 400 and 800 metres only. These are invariably tall, well-built athletes, who are heavier than the longer middle-distance men, their weekly mileage is around 45 kilometres, mostly high quality work. They have a poor conversion ratio per 400m in the two-lap race compared to their best 400m time. This figure is usually eight seconds, eg best 400m = 45 secs +8 = 53 secs x 2 = 1 min 46 secs. Juantorena and Courtney, both Olympic gold medallists in the 800m fall into this category."

For a pure 400m runner just attempting the 800m, she can't hope for better than at least 12s.

Phoebe has it (w)right - Syd the kyd as a 400 hurder, a lean built 400 runner, and a high school history of doubles, triples and quadruples, has more aerobic strength than one would think and she's still really young. It probably would only take her 1 year to go from where she is to a D Brazier / Texas A&M / Sammy Watson type of 800m runner ie. low mileage / surprising results. The question is if she would be motivated to go through the pain???? So let's say she could be successful at 800m, but a world record is quite the stretch and you couldn't make a serious guess at this until she put up a few 800 times.

Of course she really has no reason to try this. She has up to a 12+ year window to be exceptional at 400H/400 and to be a Edwin Moses type of athlete. Why fool with this potential?

People like to take snippets from articles. If this applied to very many decent runners, the world record would be 1:35 for 800 and it would be 1:48 for women. A fully trained McLaughlin would run 2:04. It would be fun to see her get embarrassed.