Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Withdraws from 2023 World Championships Due to Minor Knee Injury
By Alex Geula and Robert Johnson
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the 400m hurdles world record holder and 2023 U.S. 400m champion, will miss the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest due to a minor knee injury. McLaughlin-Levrone announced via her own Instagram story that “I am sad to share that I must withdraw from this year’s World Championship meet in Budapest. After consulting with my doctors and coaches, I need to take care of a minor knee issue so that I can be fully healthy for next year’s Paris Olympics. I look forward to seeing everyone back on the track soon!”
This announcement comes three weeks after McLaughlin-Levrone pulled out of the Monaco Diamond League 400m, also citing a slight problem with her knee, and just two days after she was announced for a clash with Femke Bol in the 400 hurdles after Worlds in Brussels on September 8. That clash is now off; SML’s coach Bobby Kersee told the LA Times her 2023 season is over.
McLaughlin-Levrone is the reigning Olympic and world champion in the 400m hurdles and decided to shift her focus to the 400m flat this season. SML has earned the title of the fastest woman over 400m so far this season, clocking a PB of 48.74 at the U.S. Championships last month. She was only 0.04 seconds off from the American record held by Sanya Richards-Ross.
SML had high hopes for the 400m this season, with her eyes not so far off from the world record of 47.60 set by Marita Koch in 1985. She told the LA Times that “if we can take the 400 hurdles to 50.6, I think 47.6 isn’t too far off.” That goal will have to wait.
Sydney McLauglin-Levrone Wins 2023 USATF 400m (Kevin Morris photo)
Moving forward, the favorite for the 400m in Budapest is now Marileidy Paulino, who has run 48.98 this year and is the only woman to beat McLaughlin-Levrone over 400m this season. For Team USA, Lynna Irby-Jackson, who placed 4th at the U.S. Championships last month, will replace SML and join Britton Wilson and Talitha Diggs as a part of the U.S. women’s 400m squad.
You can see how the LetsRun.com crew reacted in live time below when they found out the news Sydney was out of Worlds:
Quick Take: While not surprising, this is disappointing and we’d like to know more about the injury
Track & field is a sport struggling for popularity and it doesn’t help that two of America’s most talented stars, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Athing Mu, don’t love competing. If someone who is anxious about competition to begin with isn’t 100%, we can see why they would want to skip out on the competition, but you don’t skip Worlds for a “minor” injury. Can you imagine an NFL player skipping the AFC Championship Game due to a minor injury? Of course not.
We’d like to know what the minor injury is. People can talk about HIPAA and athletes’ rights all you want but if an MLB pitcher was missing the playoffs due to injury, the fans would know what the injury was. If Sydney has a knee injury that could potentially get much worse, you 100% can skip Worlds but then we wouldn’t call that a minor injury. But if it’s something that will be cleared up with a scope within weeks, you should run through it.
Update: Reporter Andrew Greif has spoken to the Kersee about SML’s withdrawal and he has an article out in the LA Times. In it, Greif writes that Kersee told him McLaughlin-Levrone’s injury will not require surgery but Greif wrote that “[Kersee] said the medical team agreed McLaughlin-Levrone could run but not without the risk of aggravating an injury he termed ‘nothing major’ into something more damaging.”
It will be interesting to see if this changes anything for 2024. We have assumed the plan all along was for SML to try to the 400/400h double next year at the Olympics. The schedule is quite doable as she’d never have to run two races on the same day but now she won’t have had a flat 400 Worlds under her belt.
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Quick Take: Does this affect Athing Mu’s chances of attending the World Championships?
Mu and SML are both coached by Bobby Kersee in a training group in LA dubbed “Formula Kersee.” Mu, who is the reigning 800m world champion and qualified for Budapest through an automatic bye, is not sure if she will be boarding the plane to Hungary. On August 2, Kersee told the LA Times that “we’re going to just train here in L.A. for the next two weeks and the next time she gets on the plane it’ll either be on vacation or to Budapest.”
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