How Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone hurdled over her biggest fears

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is a record-breaking track and field star who says she was "running from God for years" — but isn't any longer.

The 24-year-old Olympian details her spiritual journey in new book, "Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear To Faith,” out Jan. 30.

“Redirecting where my identity was is the biggest thing,” McLaughlin-Levrone tells TODAY.com in an interview at 30 Rock in New York, following her TODAY appearance. Mary McLaughlin, sat in on the interview, beaming the entire time. Her husband, Andre Levrone, Jr. was also present.

“If I won, that was my worth, my value. If I was loved, that was my worth, my value," the hurdler says of her perspective before her awakening.

"(But with) Christ, being able to redirect that to him — that being the center and the focus of my identity ... has helped everything else in my life to fall into place as it should be, which has been a blessing that’s helped on and off the track,” the says.

McLaughlin-Levrone says the personal evolution helped her out the “very low point” she fell into during the pandemic.

“I felt like I was running from God for years. That’s when I was like, ‘God, I surrender it to you. I don’t know what this looks like. I don’t know what it means. Just show me what you’re trying to show me,’” she says.

After that breakthrough, McLaughlin says “the gospel became clear.”

“Scripture talks about the veil being taken off of your eyes. That’s what happened. It just made sense,” she says.

And she says she's been winning ever since she surrendered, on and off the track. She and Levrone, a former NFL wide receiver currently in seminary school, got married in 2022. They met after he slid into her DMs, she told The Knot, and they attended Bible Study together.

The same year as her wedding, she broke her own world record to become, yet again, the 400m hurdles World champion and record holder with a time of 50.68. The following summer, in 2023, she won the national title in the 400m with a time of 48.75, nearly breaking the American record of 48.70 in the event. She became the third U.S. woman to run the 400 in under 49 seconds. She's currently training for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris.

The title of her book and the stories she shares in it comes from 1 Peter 1, a scripture in the Bible, that "talks about how our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, unfading."

"It’s more precious than rubies and more precious than gold. I run track, by the grace of God, I’m able to win medals. But that doesn’t come with you. That doesn’t transfer over when this life is done. What is your security? I think being able to be in Christ and have that influence that is so much, far beyond this world has to offer, is the point of life,” she says.

The New Jersey native says her goal in life and athletics is “just growth."

“Every day is like a learning experience, especially being married. I say marriage is the biggest sanctification tool. Being able to just be like, ‘OK, what in my life does not reflect Christ?’ I’m actually selfish. I actually have certain tendencies that aren’t the best for marriage, and so I think every day is just being pruned.”

She says, for example, she’s really good at “pointing out flaws” in her husband but “not very good at taking correction.”

“For the betterment of our marriage, I’ve had to die to myself and humble myself to learn, like, ‘OK, this is not helpful for us. How can I do a better job?’”

The couple is planning to grow their family. "We want to possibly have children in the next couple of years. There's no specific timeline on that. But I think just taking each day as it comes," she said.

“I do really aspire to be a mom one day," she adds. "I have baby fever, but I control it very well. I love babies. We have aspirations to move back east. So, I think when retirement comes, I think we’ll know.

As for when retirement will come, the Los Angeles resident says that five years into her track and field career, she hasn’t decided, but knows that day will come eventually.

“I obviously don’t want to stay past my time. But at the same time, I want to use the gift until it’s no longer time to be used,” she says. “I love track and field and I think I’m going to do it the best I can for as long as I can, but it’s also not my whole life.”

McLaughlin-Levrone says she’s at a stage in her career where she’s refining her already formidable performance.

“I think every year my goal is to improve upon myself,” she says. “I feel like you never really run a perfect race because there’s always something you can improve upon. And that, to me, is the fascination of track. How can I get that 100th of a second to make the difference?”

That’s her goal heading into the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris, now that she’s recovered from a knee injury she sustained toward the end of last year, she says.

“‘Excellent’ to me is just how can I get better every day,” she says. “What are those little things right now? It’s nutrition. It’s recovery. It’s treatment. It’s doing the exercises even when I’m tired after a long day. That, to me, is that little margin that makes the difference.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com