Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will miss the World Athletics Championships in Budapest

Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will miss the World Athletics Championships, which start on August 19 in Budapest and run until August 27. The American, who is also the world record holder in the discipline, has a knee injury and prefers not to risk participating in Hungary.

The 24-year-old Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone would be defending her 400m hurdles title and also was expected to appear in 400m.

The American added that she needs to “take care of a little problem in her knee to be fully healthy for the Olympic Games in Paris next year”.

She leads the world rankings for the season in the 400m with a time of 48.74 sec from the US Championships in July.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is an American hurdler and sprinter who competes in the 400m hurdles. She is the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion with the Games record, and 2022 World champion with a world record time of 50.68 sec. Setting four world records during 13 months, she was the first woman to break the 52-sec (June 2021) and 51-sec (July 2022) barriers in the 400m hurdles. She won the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. At all three competitions, she also took gold as part of a women’s 4x400m relay team. Moreover, she was the 2019 Diamond League champion.