World Record Holder Sydney McLaughlin Shows Off Impressive Juggling Skills, Video

• Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the 400m USA trials to qualify for the World Championships
• She might try her hand at the flat 400m, one year after breaking the world record in the 400m hurdles
• Apart from her sprinting prowess and dominance, she is also talented at juggling

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will lead USA's charge in both the flat 400m and her 400m hurdles speciality at the World Athletics Championships next month.

McLaughlin-Levrone nearly broke the national record in the flat 400m at the United States trials in Eugene, Oregon, crossing the line in 48.74 seconds.

She is now eligible to participate in both events at the Budapest championships, but her coach Bobby Kersee had intimated that she might just choose one as captured by NBC Sports.

She already had a bye for the hurdles by virtue of being the defending champion, where she historically shattered the world record to the 50.68 that stands to date. Prior to that stunning race at the Hayward field last year, she had already broken the record three times in a span of one year.

Who are the 10 best female surfers in the world currently?

Other Sports

The 23-year-old has focussed on the flat 400m this year, where her personal best is just 1.68 seconds off Marita Koch's long-standing world record of 47.06 seconds. The personal best she set at the trials is the fastest time in the world this year.

McLaughlin-Levrone's juggling skills

Unbeknownst to many, had McLaughlin-Levrone chosen to take another path, she probably would have been a professional entertainer, wowing people with her juggling skills.

So talented is the Tokyo Olympic champion that she can perfectly juggle three balls while maintaining eye contact with whoever she is talking to. The movement of the balls in and out of her hands is so poetic, just like than insane run that saw her bring the world to a standstill last year.

She explains that she learnt juggling in fifth grade after her teacher sort of made it compulsory to learn it.

"This was something that we all learnt in recess. It is like a fun party trick that you can tell people about," she said in an interview with Team USA.

Man smashes Guinness World Record after running longest distance without oxygen while on fire

Other Sports

McLaughlin-Levron is the only woman to have broken the 51-second barrier in the 400m hurdles. She credits her juggling skills party to helping her concentrate on her objectives.

"It's good for balance and coordination and for when you are just bored. Sometimes I bring my balls to my track meets."

Should she choose to race the flat 400m, she will be hoping to dethrone two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who is slowly making her way back to competitive action three months after giving birth.

"The greats always push themselves, and I want to be one of them. So I have to push myself and get out of my comfort zone," said McLaughlin-Levron after her triumph at the USA trials, as quoted by BBC Sports.

In either race she will choose to participate in, one thing that has always been certain is that she will bring the roof down.

Top 7 richest tennis players in the world ahead of Wimbledon 2023

Tennis

Fraser-Pryce's story to stardom

That Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will go down in history as one of the greatest sprinters ever, male or female, is no longer in question.

The only thing she hasn't been able to do in the women's 100 metres is to break the long-standing record of Florence Griffith-Joyner, which was set in 1988.

But Fraser-Pryce has gone ahead to write her own history. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Sports Brief reported that she grew up in a violence-plagued environment and was raised by a single mother, Maxine Simpson. She started running barefoot while in primary school at the tender age of 10.