Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Will Double In Diamond League Final That She’s Not Eligible For

Update on 9/4 – There has been a major change. The DL has put its foot down and won’t allow Sydney to run in the DL final since she’s not eligible: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Will Not Be Allowed To Compete In Diamond League 200m/400m Finals.

American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (SML) is one of track & field’s biggest stars. When Sydney competes, she almost always does incredibly well.

She has competed in seven track meets in 2024 and produced a world lead or world record in four of them, including her sixth world record in the women’s 400 hurdles of 50.37 at the Paris Olympics. The only criticism of SML that has any validity is she doesn’t compete very often — especially on track’s premier pro circuit, the Wanda Diamond League, where she has raced only once since 2019.

McLaughlin-Levrone at the 2024 US Olympic Trials (Kevin Morris photo)

So we have some good news. Today, organizers of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme announced that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will be competing in this year’s meet on September 13-14, which also serves as the 2024 Diamond League final. And she’ll be competing in two events — the women’s 200 and 400.

The bad news is the Diamond League organizers are violating their own rules by allowing her to compete.

The Diamond League final is supposed to be the end of season championship for the athletes who accumulated the most points during the regular season — much like how the FedEx Cup Playoffs on the PGA Tour is for the players who accumulated the most points during golf’s regular season.

Now, Diamond League rules do allow for up to two men and two women to receive “Global Wild Card” entries into the Diamond League final, but Rule 4.5 of the Diamond League Meetings Regulations specifically states that to be eligible for a wild card, an athlete must have competed in a regular season Diamond League meet.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has not competed in any Diamond League meets in 2024.

Quick Take Analysis: This wild card entry for the face of a rival track league is pretty shocking

While this development is certainly a boost for Brussels, we are pretty surprised by it. The fact that they’d make an exception for someone who has not only blown off the entire Diamond League circuit this year but also has been announced as the lead for a new rival circuit in 2025 — Grand Slam Track — is pretty surprising.

It’s also interesting that SML will be doubling in Brussels. Throughout her career, McLaughlin-Levrone has repeatedly chosen not to double in individual events at global championships. But next year she’ll have to double at the four Grand Slam Track meets, and the 200/400 that she’s running in Brussels is one of the doubles available to her in GST.

This is a massive leap — and total speculation on our part — but it makes us wonder if Brussels might become part of Grand Slam Track in 2025. One of our main criticisms of Grand Slam Track (in addition to its siloed event groups and convoluted scoring system) is the fact that they are trying to make “majors” out of new meets with zero history.

But between 1993 and 1997, Brussels was part of the Golden Four (Berlin, Brussels, Oslo, and Zürich). Might Brussels try to recreate history, join Grand Slam Track and once again become one of the Big 4? Given how we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years with all of the NCAA conference realignments that sports entities will act in their own self-interest, it certainly wouldn’t shock us. One of the reasons Berlin did not join the Diamond League when it formed back in 2010 was that it wanted the freedom to operate the meet its own way rather than following Diamond League regulations.

We have reached out to the Memorial Van Damme for comment and will let you know what we hear back.

What do you think? Should she be allowed to compete? Vote in our poll and talk about it on our world-famous messageboard/fan forum: MB: Sydney McLaughlin to double in DL Final – an event she’s not eligible for