Sydney McLaughlin was at the starting line of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Today was her day. She was racing the 400 meter hurdle finals. “Get out of the blocks, she thought. Run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win." Soon the starting gun sounds. Sydney takes off, clearing every hurdle. This time, it is Sydney vs the clock. With no one in front of her, she pushes until she crosses the finish line. Sydney has broken the world record in the 400 meter hurdles for the seventh time. But what got Sydney here? What experiences bought her to this point?
Sydney grew up with a family that loved track and field. Her mom raced on the boys track team in high school, and even ran ½ a mile in 2 minutes! Her dad was also a star on the track. He is in the athletic hall of fame for being a 3-time 400 meter champion. It may not be surprising that Sydney decided to try track. After all, her brother and sister loved it too! When she was 14, her father said, "All of our kids are fairly talented, but Sydney's a little special. We saw it coming. It was just a matter of time."
In 2016, Sydney qualified for the Olympics. At the finals in the 2016 Olympics, she did something no one saw coming. She slowed down at the end, costing her a spot on the podium. Even though placing 5th at the Olympics sounds great, Sydney was a mess inside. “I had grown up in a Christian home all my life, but I didn’t want Jesus as a part of my life. I thought being a Christian meant you can do this or that, but you have to do this. I decided to run away from Jesus.”
After the Olympics, Sydney decided to attend collage and run on Union Catholic's track team. There, she found emptiness. “I defined myself by my athletic accomplishments. Nothing about me mattered if I wasn’t winning a race. It wasn’t until I suffered crushing defeats on and off the track that I turned to the only One greater than my problems, greater than my fear, and discovered my truest identity, the title that means the most: daughter of God.”
One day, Sydney was on Instagram when she found a guy who was a football player in the NFL. Something about him stood out to her. In everything, he gave God the glory. All of his posts gave glory to God. Sydney decided she was interested in him, so she hit follow. One day, Andre sent her a DM. Soon they got together. Many of their first dates were at his NFL Bible study. There, she gained a new perspective. “Here I learned that being a Christian meant having a relationship with God”.
In January 2021, Andre came to visit Sydney. One night he suggested they listen to a sermon on Colossians 3. Verses 8 through 10 jumped out at her, especially the part about putting on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. That night, Sydney gave her life to Jesus. “An indescribable joy swept over me in that moment. Surrendering to God was not giving up my freedom; it was finding it.”
Soon, Sydney came up to some of the greatest moments in her career. At the 2021 Olympics, she broke the 400 meter hurdles record with time of 51.90 seconds. This record didn’t stand for long! In fact, she has broken that record six times. This year at the Olympics, she ran in 50.37. Sydney has not lost a race since 2019, and she credits her wins to God each and every day. “I train hard and run everyday, so that the day I win that race, and the microphone is put in front of my mouth, I can give God the glory for everything”.
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