When Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone stepped into the Stade de France Thursday to defend her 400m women’s hurdles gold medal from the Tokyo Games, she brought her faith in God with her.
God, as it turns out, was willing to do stunning things as the 2024 Paris Olympics neared their conclusions.
According to the Olympics website, the American runner set a new world record time in the event, finishing in 50.37 seconds. The U.K. Guardian reported she knocked 0.28 seconds off her own world record during the event and pulled away from U.S. teammate Anna Cockrell and the Netherlands’ Femke Bol, both of whom were over a second and a half behind her.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the 400m hurdles by so much that no other competitor was in this photo 😳 pic.twitter.com/OVzOHX0vj0
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) August 9, 2024
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“Grateful to God for this opportunity, grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this,” she said after her victory, which came a day after her birthday.
“It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine.”
This was her second gold in the event — but her first before an audience. (The 2020 Tokyo Games, actually held in 2021 because of the pandemic, saw the women’s hurdles and other events held before empty arenas.)
“I think this was my first real Olympics,” she said. “And I’m grateful for that in its fullness.”
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“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles,” she added. “Just a lot of hard work put in this year. I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way around.”
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone takes in a well-deserved Star Spangled Banner after winning gold in the women’s 400m hurdles. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/oAjdeTc9Ni
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
And, speaking to the media at the Olympics, she also placed an emphasis on God and her faith — and not just because it means she’ll win, but because it means she’s doing whatever God wants her to do through Him.
“I have a platform and I want to use it to glorify Him,” she said.
“Whenever I step onto the track, it’s always the prayer of God: ‘Let me be the vessel in which You’re glorified, whatever the result is.’”
.@GoSydGo , who won the gold medal and broke the world record in the 400 meter hurdles, talks about the importance of her faith to her life and her athletic performances pic.twitter.com/fGx1CZbJyI
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 9, 2024
This manifests itself, she told reporters, in “how I carry myself, how I conduct myself, not just how I perform.
“It’s just freedom in knowing that, regardless of what happens, He’s going to get the praise through me.”
It’s not that this is the first time McLaughlin-Levrone has shared her faith with the world. Instead, it has a lot more to do with the fact that she’s the perfect hero at an Olympics which hasn’t had enough of them.
— Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (@GoSydGo) April 23, 2024
We’ve seen God mocked, effluence in the Seine, intersex boxers beating up on women, practically any outrage you can imagine aside from full-frontal nudity broadcast to the world on live TV. And there’s still until Sunday to do that.
After that litany of disgraces, here’s someone we can get behind: a woman with a platform and an amazing talent using it to glorify God. Amen and hallelujah.
Beyond that, though, there’s the fact that this is the prayer we all, as Christians, should be praying.
One needs to be stunningly mature — particularly as an athlete — to pray that God does what He wants with us, not what we want Him to do.
Too often, our supplications fall into how Ambrose Bierce described prayer in “The Devil’s Dictionary”: “To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.”
Not to cast aspersions without saying I’m as guilty as the next man. It’s easy to say “let go and let God,” and one of the hardest things to do.
Yet, true freedom can be found in those words, and only those words: “Let me be the vessel in which You’re glorified.” Any sort of human accomplishment won’t do the trick. Just ask a gold medalist who also happens to be a spectacular role model for us all.
