Hurdler Sydney gets power from on high

Track sensation Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone blew away all competition in her Olympics final during a world-record run.

The US 400m hurdler triumphed by more than a second in Paris against the best runners on the planet, setting a new world’s best of 50.37s.

Fellow American Anna Cockrell took silver and Femke Bol of the Netherlands the bronze.

For winner McLaughlin-Levrone, who’s still only 25, Olympic gold and a world record were merely more opportunities to praise God for her success.

In her winner’s press conference, she said: “I credit all that I do to God.

“He’s given me a gift, he’s given me a drive to just want to continue to improve upon myself, and I have a platform and I want to use it to glorify him.

“So whenever I step on the track it’s always the prayer of, ‘God, let me be the vessel in which You’re glorified, whatever the result is – how I conduct myself, how I carry myself, not just how I perform.’

“So it’s just freedom in knowing that regardless of what happens, he’s going to get the praise through me. That’s why I do what I do.”

She told NBC after her semi-final Olympics run: “You work all year to get here, but what you’ve done is what keeps you here. So it’s just about executing that, trusting the process, trusting the plan, and ultimately, trusting God.”

She’s now released a book – Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear to Faith – and also uses social media to regularly share her faith.

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