The women's 400-meter hurdles final promised to be a battle not only for gold, but also for the world record.
And that's exactly what happened, as Sydney McLaughlin chased down reigning Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad and eventual bronze-medalist Femke Bol of the Netherlands to win in 51.47 seconds—43 hundredths of a second better than her previous world record. Muhammad's time for silver, 51.58, was a personal best that also broke McLaughlin's old record.
Each time they have met at a major competition since 2019, either Muhammad or McLaughlin has broken the world record. First it was Muhammad at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, where her time (52.