Latest / CBN Sports 1-ON-1 / EP.10 Olympic Gold-medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Transcript
- Will Dawson: Welcome to CBN Sports One-on-One, where you'll hear exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in sports right here on the CBN Sports Podcast Network. I'm your host, Will Dawson. If you're like most of us and you love sports, but you're tired of the dark side of sports culture, me-focused athletes, or even organizations that bow to an unbiblical belief system, we think you're gonna love this podcast. There's no yelling. No sensationalism, just great conversations with athletes and coaches who recognize that their purpose is bigger than their sport. Well, before Olympian Sidney McLaughlin Lavroni won four gold medals, she battled extreme anxiety. Her struggle with perfectionism left her fearful. As a senior in high school, Sydney competed in the Olympics but didn't win a medal. And after returning home, she was bullied on social media. She felt like a failure. Until a Bible passage in Colossians changed everything. Let's jump right in. From the time that you were running as a as a young girl, when did you know that you were not just good, but maybe even great? Man, I mean I started running when I was six. And I think it's kind of hard to tell when you're that young. You know, you're just running for the fun of wanting to run. ⁓ but I think it wasn't until I got to high school. ⁓ coming into now freshman year where you're racing against Juniors, seniors, girls three years older than you, I was like very intimidated. ⁓ but my first race was an indoor three hundred and I actually won the race against some seniors. And I think that's when it kind of hit me that wow, maybe I can actually, you know, hang with these girls. And it didn't take long for notoriety to come along with that. And most people would, young athletes, would embrace that. You handled it a little bit differently though, didn't you? Yeah. ⁓ I've never been one for attention or anything like that, you know. I actually like to kind of maintain a low key status. For me, it just kinda helps keep the noise at bay and and the nerves. ⁓ something that for my whole life I've had to figure out how to handle and deal with. ⁓ but I think my great support system definitely helps kind of keep me grounded and rooted in in myself and who the Lord's made me to be. So from an early age As a runner, anxiety and fear plagued you. Where did that come from? I think anxiety and fear for me kind of just came from my desire to want to be perfect in all things. And the reality is that nobody can do that. And I think for me that was a constant battle internally of how do I get as close to perfect as possible. ⁓ in a world where you can't control your circumstances or what happens to you all the time. ⁓ for me it constantly left me in a state of fear. And ⁓ especially on the track racing against other people who are as good, if not better. ⁓ that was a constant battle of am I enough? Will I ever be enough, or will I ever measure up to the standard that I have for myself and that other people have for me. You were the youngest person to qualify for the US or for the for the Olympics at age sixteen in almost forty years. Why were you afraid Afraid at that point and was it hard to just enjoy the experience? Yeah. I think I was afraid just of the experience itself. You know, ⁓ I'd always dreamed of going to the Olympics and making it to that place, but I always dreamed of going for gold. And I think at sixteen years old, I knew there was a very good chance that that was not going to happen. ⁓ as a competitor and as a perfectionist, always wanting to win, always wanting to be on the top of the podium. that looked to me like a circumstance where I knew that was not gonna happen. And so it was very hard to enjoy that moment for what it was because I knew the result was not going to be what I hoped it would be. You knew that it was not going to be? I believed in my heart it wasn't going to be. I don't know if it something could have been different, you know, given decisions I made in Rio, but ⁓ it definitely looked like that odds were stacked against me. Let's talk about the decisions in Rio. You admit in the book, and it took a lot of humility to do so, that as someone who is a perfectionist, someone who has competed at the highest level, that you decided to kind of coast to give up. Yeah. Yeah. I think in that moment during the semifinals, it was really just fear that took over. ⁓ and as much as I hated losing, I didn't even want to put myself in a position to humiliate myself in front of the whole world in that final. ⁓ and come up short and just feel like I couldn't grasp what I'd always dreamed of. And so instead of seeing what possibilities lie there, I decided to remove myself completely and make sure I didn't make it to the final by coasting. ⁓ which in the immediate brought some sort of sense of like, You're done, you don't have to worry about this anymore. But I'll always wonder what could have happened if I had really just let, you know, God take the wheel. So is also someone who cared about what other people thought about them. Yeah. I'm sure that was in the back of your mind when you're going home and what will people think of me? Yeah. I definitely thought about that a lot. You know, are they looking at me like, you know, she really was just a high schooler. That's why she didn't make it to the final. Could she have done more? You know, was it a fluke that she made it in the first place? Kind of thing. ⁓ and I remember receiving messages actually on Instagram and people saying stuff like, You made it all the way to the Olympics not to get a medal, you know. And stuff like that just ate at me because I knew that, you know, deep down in my heart, I could have possibly made it to that final if I had given it everything I had. And so that was a very tough pill to swallow. ⁓ but I just knew from that point on I was like, I need to figure out how to deal with this fear because I can't keep living like this. That leads me to the next thing that I was going to ask you too. So you're 16 years old, you've just run in the Olympics, you're a teenager, you're coming back to high school, you have all the pressures of being a teenage girl that everybody else does, and yet all the expectations of a world a world champion athlete. How difficult was that for you at that time? It was very difficult. They don't write books on how to deal with that. ⁓ I mean, it's such uncharted territory. I feel like. ⁓ but I think, you know, as someone who wasn't saved, who didn't know the Lord and in my own understanding of how to be humble, I guess I would have handled it the best I possibly could. ⁓ but I I really wish I would have had some more guidance on how to do that. And I think, you know, obviously the Lord would have been a wonderful place to go for that and ⁓ his word, but at the time I just wasn't in a place to to comprehend it. ⁓ And so it was a very tough year coming back for sure for my senior year. You get messages on social media that are as cruel as they as you received. For young girls out there, for for other people, teenagers and social media, do you have any thoughts or any wisdom about how to deal with that? Yeah. It can be a very dangerous place, social media. it can be a place where you can either be built up to a certain level that's not realistic. Or you can be torn down to a place where you think very lowly of yourself. And so I think you have to be wise when when on apps like that. And ⁓ for me, I've had to learn that just distancing myself altogether is actually very helpful. As much as I want to share the word and share the gospel, ⁓ I also can easily get sucked into things that are just not healthy for my eyes to see, and messages from people who don't know me. And so I think limiting how much access people have to you and reminding yourself of you know who you are in Christ is the number one thing. So after high school you go to the University of Kentucky, did great at UK, and then you had your sights set on the world championships in remind me, what year was that? 2019. In 2019. And your goal was to win gold or to to win first place the world championships. And that didn't happen. Yeah. How did you respond to that? ⁓ not well. I think, you know, after coming off of Rio, just wanting to prove myself, especially on the world stage, now as a professional for the first time, being able to make it all the way there on the world stage ⁓ and still come up short, I think was just devastating for me. I still couldn't understand what all the fear was, all the anxiety, how to handle it. Yeah, it just took a huge toll. I think years of running from God, trying to live life on my own, ⁓ both in track and off the track, just was catching up to me. And I think as much as I would have said like I was depending on God during that time, I'm grateful that he did not allow me to get what I wanted in that yeah. I think I wasn't prepared for for what he had for me in terms of quote unquote success. And I think I didn't know how to handle it properly. ⁓ and I think he was humbling me and pruning me and preparing me ⁓ for, you know, dying to myself before I could hold what he had for me. Yeah, you ran that race and if you had run it a few months earlier, you would have set a world record. Is that right with the time? And yet you you just barely come up short. Yeah. But you felt like a complete failure. Yeah. I think there I knew from a physical aspect there was so much more I could have done. ⁓ I missed about forty days of training that year just due to either injuries or laziness. I had a situation with the first hurdle that made me start two feet behind the line. So I was already starting at a deficit and then my hurdle form wasn't very good at the time. So even that was something that was kind of holding me back. ⁓ but then just mentally, you know, not being confident in the gift that God given me had given me. ⁓ and then also, you know, just not having him at the center of my life, making myself the center, always left me depleted and looking for something that I couldn't pull out of myself. You talk about how you're glad looking back. And adversity has a way of of doing that. We're able to in hindsight look with twenty twenty vision, right? What do you think would have happened? Had you won that race, things would certainly be different. Absolutely. I think if I had won that race, I probably wouldn't have seen a need for God at the time. I would have felt like I had everything under control. ⁓ and at the time I would have said my quote unquote faith, because I don't I don't think it was really faith, just consisted of, you know, asking him to help me through the race. And that was it. ⁓ that was the extent of my communication with him. And if I had succeeded, I may have felt like You know, why would I need to go any further? I've already got what I want. And so I'm grateful that he humbled me in that moment, not just on a, you know, physical track standpoint, but from a mental, spiritual, emotional standpoint, to realize I don't have it within myself to become all that I'm trying to be. So then was that motivation for you to work harder? ⁓ your relationship with with Christ and and Even th the drive to eventually win gold at the Olympics? Absolutely. I think I left Doha and that loss and relationships that had been broken, ⁓ and truly felt like, God, I need you. You know, there's there's no way I'm gonna heal from all of this unless it's with you. And so during COVID that was when I truly started seeking him. I didn't know what I was seeking, I didn't know what it looked like. He was very gracious during that time too. Reveal himself to me. Yeah. I think it prepared me for the Olympics the following year, you know, them being postponed. It all just truly worked together the way he planned it, honestly. And I think I was then prepared by having my mind fixed on him to to have, you know, that moment in ⁓ in Tokyo. When you ran previously, you didn't really have an opportunity to enjoy it because you were so inside of yourself. Yes. Were you able to enjoy it then in Tokyo in the Olympics? I was. I think, yes. I wasn't able to enjoy it in previous years because of all of the anxiety and stress and worrying. But Tokyo, I remember running the race and being like, Is this real life? Like it am I really about to, you know, accomplish my lifelong dream and just crossing the line, like truly just thanking God for this moment and For carrying me through it, you know. ⁓ and it's not just the race itself, it's the preparation. All the whole day of waking up, reading scripture, praying, you know, ⁓ reminding myself of what he's done for me, even just like how I warm up, everything, it makes the whole experience of being a track athlete to me what it was intended to be, which is a joyful experience of glorifying him. That's awesome. When you cross the finish line. What were the emotions? Relief, praise, thankfulness, excitement, ⁓ disbelief, all those different things at once, but truly just like thank you, God, for hearing my prayers and answering them and ⁓ just being being kind to me. ⁓ I think that's the number one thing every time I cross the line is like, God, you have not failed me. Even when I lose, I still win because I learn. And you still prune me and guide me and sustain me. And yeah, I the girl who once cross, you know, used to cross the line and still feel empty inside. I now have joy, even in the midst of any circumstance. There are racing metaphors in the Bible, in the New Testament, about running the race. ⁓ and even in running the hurdles, there are obstacles in the way in our in our in your racing and and even in our spiritual walk. Do you see that play out in your own life? Absolutely. running as one to win the prize, you know. ⁓ and not like a boxer beating aimlessly at the air, but truly having intention and purpose. I think even in my daily training, that's something that I stick to in just terms of being intentional in what I do and knowing that number one, I'm thankful that it is even biblical, you know, running the race for me. I feel like it just like gives us an extra sense of confidence to what I'm doing. and number two, just knowing that I'm running with that purpose of achieving the goal. And the goal is not gold medals like the book says, it's far beyond gold. It's, you know, achieving salvation, which is already mine and Jesus, but obviously running the way the running the race of the Christian life well. And I think there's so many parallels from those verses to my daily life that It's just wonderful reminders that I can take with me daily. There was a moment, or maybe it wasn't a moment for you. You were God was working on you over a period of time like he does with so many of us. But ⁓ there was a time when it really hit you ⁓ that things were different and you saw things in a different light. Will you tell me a little bit about that? It was reading Colossians three that ⁓ flipped a switch for me. ⁓ in terms of my thinking and just kind of how I saw everything. It just made the whole gospel make sense. ⁓ and I can't tell you what it was about it, but the what lens in which I viewed life had truly switched. and understanding like that in and of myself I have nothing to offer God, but it is just the righteousness of Jesus covering my life based upon my faith that is presentable before him. And so as my life continues now, putting my mind and setting my mind on things above, ⁓ where Christ is seated at the right hand of God is how I can continue to pursue righteousness, you know, in my daily life and even on the track before races, that's what I'm reminding myself of is setting my mind on the things above, you know, knowing that the Lord is looking down on my life right now and me wanting to honor him and he's glorified in that. And so it just became a joyful way of experiencing life and and living life. And ⁓ yeah, it's way better than I was thinking before. With that in mind, there was a period of time where you were growing in the way that you viewed your track accomplishments that when you do excel, you are glorifying him. Mm-hmm. And so thinking about the twenty twenty four Olympics. What are your goals? Yeah. I think my goals for twenty twenty-four are just to truly give it whatever I have. You know, whatever the Lord's plan is is sufficient for me and I trust that. And, you know, I'm trying to daily just center my mind on him and let him take care of the rest. I think when I strive in my flesh, it never turns out how, you know, I desire for it to be, or even, you know, well. I think obviously the Lord is in control and whatever his plan is, I trust that. But at the same time, I I've learned that I even in my thinking need to humble myself to know that I I can't do it alone. And so I just wanna go out there. Whatever happens, happens. ⁓ once that microphone is put in front of my face, I'm just gonna continue to glorify him. ⁓ and And I hope people really see Christ in those moments and not me. It certainly would mean a lot to you to win gold though. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Paris is the first Olympics, the first normal Olympics in years. ⁓ Rio, there was the Zika virus. So the there wasn't a whole lot of fans in the stands. And then COVID Olympics and Tokyo, there was nobody in the stands. So this would be the first real Olympics, God willing, if I if I make it and qualify. And yeah, I think You know, if I was able to achieve gold with my friends and family there, that would be the moment of a lifetime for sure. Well, on the heels of this interview, Sydney went out and captured two gold medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and two more at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. Sydney's story could be made into a movie. She was at her lowest, and God lifted her up to the highest place at the Olympics, winning a gold medal. But you don't have to be an Olympian. To deal with highs and lows, you simply have to be human. We've all endured struggles. We lived this life between the gardens, but we're no longer in the Garden of Eden because our sins separated us from God. We're not yet to our final home, heaven, the new Eden, where God will be with us. In the meantime, we have a Savior who is well acquainted with our suffering because he suffered on our behalf, taking our sins upon himself so that we can be free and live with joy. And live the life he created us to live. His name is Jesus. Well, if you enjoyed this podcast, share it with a friend, a family member, a coworker. Our goal is to reach the world with the gospel through sports. And subscribe. That's just a small way that you can help us. You can watch this podcast on YouTube, and we have feature stories with athletes as well as video shorts. We think you're gonna enjoy all of that content. We're on social media, on Instagram, we're at CBN Sports underscore. Just search for us on Facebook. X and TikTok. We'll see ya soon.