Femke Bol has placed the reigning Olympic champion on notice. The 24-year-old Dutch athlete set a new European record of 50.95 seconds at the Resisprint La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland on Sunday. Bol now joins McLaughlin-Levrone, also 24, as the only two women to have raced sub 51 seconds in the event.
Bol’s time is now the third-fastest in history, but the top two still belong to McLaughlin-Levrone, who beat her own world record of 50.65 at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month. At the 2022 World Championships, McLaughlin-Levrone set a then-world record of 50.68 seconds, making her the second-fastest athlete ever.
Bol and McLaughlin-Levrone are so far ahead of the competition in the 400m hurdles that their speeds would have qualified them for the 400m flat in Paris. Their rivalry will be interesting to observe in Paris, as they stand together yet far apart from everyone else.
McLaughlin-Levrone has dominated the 400 metres hurdles since defeating American competitor and 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad in Tokyo. Bol finished third in that race, but she is now racing more than a second quicker than her bronze medal-winning performance of 52.03. Bol, an indoor 400m world record holder and two-time European Athlete of the Year, has had a spectacular rise, and she now has three of the top ten fastest performances of all time. McLaughlin, for his part, claims six of these instances.
Since McLaughlin-Levrone defeated Bol in the 2022 World Championships at Hayward Field, the two have had little opportunity to race against each other. Last season, McLaughlin-Levrone briefly focused on the 400m flat before withdrawing from the 2023 World Championships because to a knee ailment. Bol dominated and won last year’s World Championship while McLaughlin-Levrone was absent.
With both athletes fully healthy and at their peak performance, track fans will finally get to see the much awaited duel between the world’s finest. Regardless of who wins, both athletes are ready to push each other to new heights. A historic performance in under 50 seconds no longer appears out of reach.
