New Year, new successes! Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had a terrific start to the year! Well, she has a new title: Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year. And she completely deserved it! Her performance in the Paris Olympics earned her the award. But, what precisely did she do in Paris to get this award? She won gold in the 400-meter hurdles while also breaking the world record twice. It seems like every time we blink, she breaks records. This time, she ran 50.37 seconds in Paris. This is the sixth time she has done it! She has set a new record six times! Can anyone compete with that?
McLaughlin-Levrone’s motivation extends beyond the medals and records she has achieved. After such a monumental summer, she came home to Kentucky and was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, where she left her mark in 2018 by winning the NCAA Championship in her only season with the Wildcats. Her trip has come full circle, returning to where it all began, which is something remarkable.
What’s even more astounding is that by winning Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year, she not only defeated the competition, but also outperformed her college coach, Nick Mingione, in the voting.
Mingione is an American college baseball coach and former player who currently serves as head coach for the Kentucky Wildcats. He led the Kentucky Wildcats baseball team to its first College World Series appearance. In this ranking, Mingione came in second, but how close was the race? Her opponent is only 351 points behind her. The selection of Kentucky’s Sports Figure of the Year is no easy feat. Over 130 sports media members around the state voted, and McLaughlin-Levrone received a massive 1,004 points, including 40 first-place votes.
Right behind her were Mingione and basketball player Travis Perry, who had just finished an outstanding 2023 season in which he broke a long-standing scoring record. It’s worth noting that McLaughlin-Levrone is only the third woman to get this award. At the same time, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone 2024 finished on a positive note!
In December 2024, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the 2024 Female Track Athlete of the Year and she truly stood above all others for this distinction. Since securing silver at the 2019 World Championships, the 25-year-old athlete has maintained a high level of success in the 400m hurdles. The award recognition went to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who defeated Julien Alfred for the win. But Julien?
Julien Alfred won gold in the women’s 100 metres and silver in the 200 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s multiple gold medals, combined with her record-breaking performances, were unrivaled at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She has achieved an incredible feat, becoming the first athlete to break four world records in the same event period in only 13 months.
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