Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone Reveals How Coach’s Unconventional Teaching Methods Eventually Helped Win Paris Olympics Gold

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was always a sprinter who was extremely attached to the sport. Thus, when she lost to Dalilah Muhammad ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, McLaughlin-Levrone was distraught. She was struggling a great deal with her false starts. And it was at this point that coach Bobby Kersee stepped in. But now exactly how one would expect it to be. Coach Bobby had always been a mystery man with his unique coaching style. 

And this is the reason McLaughlin-Levrone could not fathom what exactly was going on. In her book, Far Beyond Gold, the Olympic gold medalist made note of the unconventional approach that Kersee took. Terming the maneuvers as “pointless commands,” Kersee would often ask the Olympian to stand up and jog for a lap. He would ask McLaughlin-Levrone to jog the nearest turn and come back. 

All these commands seemed pointless at first until she really started to get help. These directions actually added up to provide the much-needed mental stability to McLaughlin-Levrone for tackling the sudden distractions. And the result? Well, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone walked out of Tokyo with two gold medals. Now, by the time McLaughlin-Levrone was preparing for Paris, she was a star. 

In fact, she was the hot favorite for winning the gold in Paris. But once again, the pre-Olympics jitter came back. And once again, Bobby Kersee’s unique antics were on full display. In a recent appearance on The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Mclaughlin-Levrone narrated how her coach helped her come out of a precarious situation. The sprinting queen stated that since she had a height advantage, she wanted to go 14 steps. 

However, this was not the conventional way that other athletes followed. Getting into significant doldrums, McLaughlin-Levrone was tense ahead of the Paris trials. And then, as usual, Coach Bobby was there to bail her out. Of course, with some unconventional methods! Kersee asked McLaughlin-Levrone to follow her instinct and do what her body wanted to.

“Yeah, he literally had a text that just repeatedly said, Let your body do what it wants to do. Let your body do what it wants to do; let your body do what it like 50 times, uh, right before the Olympic trials,”  said Sydney. According to her, it impacted her performance by a lot. She continues, “And so we started just doing 14s and I would go, I think, through like half the race on 14s and then I would go back to 15s and yeah, that’s when we broke it for the first time we ran 51.90s.”

Well, what happened next is history. Not only did she qualify for the Olympics, but once again, won two Olympic gold medals along with a world record! Now, all these would not even have happened if she didn’t have her coach’s guidance. And she nearly lost it before the Paris Olympics.

How Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone nearly lost her Coach’s guidance before Olympic glory

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had spent years preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, fine-tuning every aspect of her race under the guidance of Bob Kersee. But just as she was about to step onto the world’s biggest stage, she was hit with a crushing blow. Her coach wasn’t coming!

Bob Kersee’s passport, caught up in an administrative delay, left her without the one person she trusted most to guide her through the biggest moment of her career. Alone in Tokyo, with no family or familiar support system due to strict COVID regulations, Sydney felt like stepping onto the battlefield all alone. She was almost forced to navigate the Olympic pressure in complete isolation.

Doubt and fear crept in. However, Sydney leaned on her faith to push forward. “I had to constantly remind myself that even though my family and possibly my coach couldn’t come with me, I wouldn’t be alone in Tokyo,” she wrote in Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith. The uncertainty weighed on her. Yet she had no choice but to move forward. 

Stepping onto the track for her first heat, she found temporary solace. Winning her race gave her a much-needed confidence boost. But even with that success, the absence of Coach Bobby loomed over her. Then, at last, came the turning point. Bob finally cleared his passport just before her second heat and rushed to Tokyo.

The sight of him in the stands was the reassurance she had been yearning for. His presence wasn’t just a comfort—it was the final piece Sydney needed to channel all her hard work into Olympic glory. With her coach back by her side, she was yet again ready to make history. And she did it with all the glory.