McLaughlin (51.46), Muhammad (51.58) and Dutch star Femke Bol (52.03) Run Another All-Time Great Olympic Final

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos from Getty Images

Much like the unbelievable race of their male counterparts one day earlier in Tokyo, Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad dragged each other into the ether of never-seen-before performance in the 400-meter hurdles. 

McLaughlin caught the hard-charging defending Olympic champion, Muhammad, after the final hurdle and broke the tape in 51.46. Muhammad clocked 51.58. 

When 2021 began, the world record in this event was 52.16. On Wednesday, bronze medal finisher Femke Bol of the Netherlands ran 52.03. 

How often is the spectator-less Olympic Games track and field meet going to blow minds? How did the 400-meter hurdles event ascend to a global spectacle? 

As impressive as the Karsten Warholm vs. Rai Benjamin matchup was a day earlier, and track pundits were calling that a Beamonesque performance, the McLaughlin-Muhammad competition was no less spectacular. 

Consider that Warholm's 45.94 was a massive world record and that only 141 men in the world have run faster than that this year without the 10 barriers. 

McLaughlin's 51.46 would rank 63rd among women in the flat 400 in 2021. 

Five years hence from Rio, Muhammad lowered her winning time there (53.13) by more than a second and a half.

And McLaughlin, still a high school junior when she competed in the semifinals in 2016, has lived up to every sky-high expectation and won a gold medal four days prior to her 22nd birthday to become the youngest champion in the event in Olympic history.

Bol is also only 21, shattering the 2003 European record to run the No. 4 all-time performance, as the top six finishers also produced the fastest efforts by place in Olympic history.

McLaughlin broke the world record for the first time in June at the U.S. Trials with 51.90 and went to the well in order to chase down Muhammad in Tokyo with 51.46.

It marked the first time any country took the top two spots in the event in the Olympic final, in addition to the only occasion where one nation produced back-to-back champions.

Muhammad joined Deon Hemmings of Jamaica as the only two athletes to secure a pair of Olympic podium finishes. Hemmings won the Olympic title in 1996 and followed with silver in 2000, the same pattern for Muhammad in Rio de Janeiro five years ago and Wednesday in Tokyo.

The U.S. also matched Jamaica with its second Olympic champion in the 400 hurdles, as Melanie Walker followed Hemmings by securing gold in 2008. 

In a session that saw the multi events get underway, the lone other competition was in the semifinals of the men's 110-meter hurdles. Americans Grant Holloway (13.13) and Devon Allen (13:18) ran the fastest two times to reach the final. Daniel Roberts finished fifth in Heat 1 (13.33) and did not advance.