Sydney McLaughlin

McLaughlin finished second to Shamier Little in the 400-meter hurdles at the 2014 national junior championships. Her timing of 55.63 seconds was a national high school freshman record and a world age-14 best. She would have been eligible to compete for the United States in the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, but was a year too young. McLaughlin also established a global age group record of 13.34 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles over 76.2 cm (2 ft 6 in) hurdles the same summer.

At the national youth trials in 2015, she improved her 400-meter hurdles best to 55.28 seconds; the time was an age 15 world best and stood second on the all-time world youth list, trailing Leslie Maxie’s world youth best (and national high school record) of 55.20 seconds set in 1984. She qualified for the World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia, where she took gold with a time of 55.94 seconds. She concluded the year as the world young and junior record holder in the event. The following week, she won the USATF junior championship in 54.54 seconds, and she was awarded Gatorade National Girls Athlete of the Year.

She won the 2015 World youth championship at the age of 15. In 2016, she was the youngest athlete to qualify for the United States Olympic track squad since 1980, finishing third in the US Olympic Trials with the current world under-18 best of 54.15 seconds, which was also the world U20 record at the time. She now owns the world U20 record of 53.60 seconds, having recorded a junior personal best of 52.75 seconds (not ratified) in 2018.

McLaughlin came in third in the 400-meter hurdles at the US Olympic Trials in 54.15 seconds, setting a new world youth and junior record and qualifying for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro before her senior year of high school. Since Carol Lewis and Denean Howard qualified for the Moscow Olympics in 1980, she was the youngest athlete to make the American Olympic track and field team. She was a member of an American record-breaking quartet that set the indoor distance medley relay world record with a time of 10:40.31 on January 28 at Boston’s Reggie Lewis Center.

McLaughlin went on to become the Tokyo Olympic 2020 champion with the Games record, as well as the 2022 World champion with a world record time of 50.68 seconds. McLaughlin holds world records in all three age divisions for women. She was the first woman to break the 52-second barrier in the 400 m hurdles in June 2021 and the 51-second barrier in July 2022, setting four senior world records in 13 months. At the World Championships in 2019, she took home the silver medal. She also won gold as part of a women’s 4 X 400 m relay team in all three tournaments.

According to sources, Sydney McLaughlin net worth’s is expected to be around $2 million. The majority of her earnings come from brand endorsements and government assistance. She has endorsements with brands like New Balance, Tag Heuer and Gatorade.

Sydney McLaughlin was born on August 7, 1999, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She comes from an athletic family. Her father, Willie McLaughlin, is a three-time All-American and member of the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame. At the 1984 Olympic Trials, he was a semi-finalist in the 400 meters. Her mother, Mary Neumeister McLaughlin, ran on the boys’ team at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Tonawanda, New York, and was a 2:12 half-miler. Her parents met while attending Manhattan College. When Mary arrived in 1979, there was no women’s track team, so she took over as the men’s track team manager.

Sydney was raised in Dunellen, New Jersey. In addition to academic success, she began running at a young age, after her older brother Taylor and older sister Morgan. She is a 2017 graduate of Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, where she was the first two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Track & Field. Morgan, her older sister, competed for St. Peter’s University. While  Taylor raced for the University of Michigan and won silver in the 400 meter hurdles at the IAAF World U20 Championships in 2016. He and Sydney both qualified for the US Olympic team in 2016. Ryan, her younger brother, followed in his big siblings’ footsteps as a Union Catholic track standout.