Olympic track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone credits God for success

Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone poses with her medal after winning the women’s 400-meter hurdles final and setting a new world record during the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, on July 22, 2022. / Credit: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2024 / 18:06 pm (CNA).

U.S. track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record and won the gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles event at the Olympics in Paris on Thursday, has often credited her success to God.

After having dominated the competition in the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this year and qualifying for the Paris games, McLaughlin-Levrone shared both her amazement in and gratitude to God.

“Honestly, praise God! I was not expecting that, but he can do anything,” she shared at the time. “Anything is possible in Christ. So yeah, I’m just amazed, baffled, and in shock.”

McLaughlin-Levrone, a devout Christian who attended Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, often references Scripture and gives thanks to God in interviews and across social media.

Sister Percylee Hart, McLaughlin-Levrone’s former principal at Union Catholic, spoke with CNA in 2022 about her pride in her former student, stating that the track star had “stepped up to the call to be that instrument for faith on the biggest stage in the world.”

“Her spontaneity at the end of her victory when she praised God and gave all the glory to God translates to me that she is God’s instrument for being a power for good worldwide,” Hart continued. “We are all called to become all God calls us to be, and be good people, and Sydney models that, and affirms that with her messages about faith.”

Further sharing her faith life, the three-time Olympic medalist released her memoir in January of this year, titled “Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith.” Throughout the book, McLaughlin-Levrone details her past experiences of struggling with anxiety and perfection while also highlighting the ways she glorifies God both on and off the track.

“As a Christian, I now existed to glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Matthew 5:16). At the beginning of 2021, I was learning all the way my life wasn’t about me. It was about showing the world God’s power, wisdom, kindness, love, and forgiveness,” she wrote. “There were a bunch of different ways to do that. Off the track, I could do that by serving others, putting their needs before mine, and being excited when God did a remarkable work in their lives (Philippians 2:3-4).”

McLaughlin-Levrone shared how she glorifies God on the track by “running with all my mind and body,” because running “was the gift God gave me to use, and by using it to the best of my ability and humbly redirecting the attention to him, he would be glorified.”

Citing the movie “Chariots of Fire,” which tells the story of Christian sprinter Eric Liddell, McLaughlin-Levrone also acknowledged how “[God] takes pleasure in us doing what we were made for. And win, lose, or draw, to run the race well is to glorify him.”