For World Champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Time is ‘Literally Everything’

Japan’s National Stadium held its breath. Thousands of fans had crammed in, squeezing tightly shoulder to shoulder to see the spectacle unfold. The late-summer heat had slicked the World Athletics Outdoor Championships track with a velvet sheen, and in the twilight, the 400 metre circuit appeared like a violet ring. But as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone made her way to the starting blocks, a deathly hush fell over the crowd. She had been here before, but never like this.

A sprinter who made her name by dancing over hurdles, the three-time Olympian now found herself with no barriers to jump; nothing between her and championship glory. Just two nights earlier, in the semi-finals, Sydney had shattered the American 400 metre record, posting a time of 48.29 seconds, eclipsing the 19-year-old mark held by Sanya Richards-Ross by a whopping 0.41 seconds. It was enough to send shockwaves through the sports world, but legacies are rarely built on qualifying performances. Under the bright lights of the finals is where champions are separated from challengers.

Crouched low, feet set, she tuned out the noise. The gun cracked, and for 47.78 seconds, the world watched in awe. By the time she crossed the finish line, Sydney had already made history; the second fastest time in Women’s 400 Metres history, just shy of the contentious 40-year-old record held by German athlete Marita Koch. It was a performance of a generation.

“I knew it was going to be a tough race,” Sydney tells me, now two weeks on from her grandstanding run. “There was great competition and the conditions were just perfect. I had such a deep feeling that I was going to run something fast. At that point on the starting line, I was just thinking about executing my race, getting out strong. The 400 hurdles is so different from the flat 400 in the sense that it really is a sprint, so I just wanted to execute, give it everything I had and leave it all out there. I’m so grateful for how it turned out.”

The Arc of a Champion

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the kind of rare athlete who makes the impossible seem effortless. A six-time world record breaker in the 400-metre hurdles, she’s made a flawless transition to the flat track and has shown no signs of slowing down. But what makes her most interesting isn’t merely her on-track dominance, but rather, the constant pursuit of reinvention.

Just last year, Sydney lined up for the 200 metres at the LA Grand Prix, a race that many assumed she had outgrown. They thought wrong. In a remarkable display of power and grit, she ran a 22.07 seconds, smashing the competition and posting a time that would have qualified her for Team USA at the World Championships.

“If you had asked me a year ago, I would’ve definitely said I prefer the hurdles,” she laughs. “But this season helped me enjoy the flat 400 more. I’ve started to appreciate both of them. I think the hurdles will always be what I gravitate more towards, but I do think I’ve started to appreciate the flat 400.”

A star athlete across the board in her junior days, Sydney has fast become one of track and field’s most interesting personalities. A continuous drive for progress has seen her switch lanes, quite literally, tackling new disciplines and events to help steer her journey. Her success, she reveals, is courtesy of a fusion of coaching, training and a restless desire for the most minuscule of improvements.

“When you get to the professional level, everybody is talented. Everybody’s working hard, it’s really about who can find those little details to help put them over the edge,” she says. “That’s where accountability comes in because it is the little things that add up.”

“I don’t want to be standing on the starting line, thinking, ‘Man, could I have done better with my recovery, my sleep, my nutrition, all these different things? Could I have trained harder?’ And so being held accountable, particularly when training can become monotonous, is what separates good from great.”

Time as a Training Partner

As with any track and field athlete, time is not an abstract concept for Sydney. To the multi-time Olympian, success is measured in fractions of a second and every little advantage helps. So when Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer and American sportswear brand New Balance approached her to become the face of their latest collaboration, it felt, as she puts it, “like a natural fit.”

The partnership birthed the TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 40MM x New Balance Edition smartwatch and the TAG Heuer x New Balance FuelCell SC Elite v5 running shoe; two tools designed for athletes who train with purpose. The watch, built from black DLC-coated titanium, pairs TAG Heuer’s Swiss precision with New Balance’s athletic sensibility. Lightweight but durable and engineered with dual-band GPS and advanced heart rate monitoring, the latest watch is a step towards future-defining performance. It’s a sentiment that Sydney knows all too well.

“Time is literally everything for me.”

“Technology can be so useful in helping you become the best version of yourself in whatever it is you’re trying to do, and I think this is an amazing example of that,” she tells me. “I’ve started to take my sleep so much more seriously. I’m able to make sure my body’s recovered; whether that is my heart rate, time in between rest for intervals, how I’m recovering, do we need more time, or less time? I appreciate those tools that help me realise that we have to calm down and figure out how to work through some of these things.”

TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 40MM × New Balance Edition

• Brand: TAG Heuer
• Model: Connected Calibre E5 New Balance
• Reference: Ref. SBT8082.EB0394
• Diameter: 40mm
• Case Material: Black DLC grade-2 sandblasted titanium case
• Display: AMOLED tactile display 1.39”, 454×454 (326 dpi)
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 5100+
• OS: TAG Heuer OS
• Water-Resistance: 50 metres
• Battery Life:
  • 1.5 days with full performance
  • 2 days in “Low Power Mode”
  • 12h in sport mode (Running)
• Charging Time: 100% in 90 minutes
• Availability: October 2025
• Price: 1’950 CHF

The TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 40MM × New Balance Edition is designed to be more than a stock-standard smartwatch. The limited edition timepiece follows the same architecture as the recently unveiled Connected E5 models, albeit with some refined touches and sports-equipped innovations.

It is constructed from lightweight black DLC-coated Grade 2 titanium and features a sandblasted finish and a crisp 1.39-inch AMOLED display. Beneath it lies TAG Heuer OS, a proprietary operating system crafted from the ground up in the brand’s dedicated Connected laboratory in Paris. Built for speed and accuracy, it is supported by dual-band GPS (L1 + L5) and an array of sensors tracking heart rate, sleep, and recovery in real time. As Sydney explains, the technology fits seamlessly into her training rhythm, but it’s not just for elite athletes.

“We live such busy lives, all of us in so many different ways, that we don’t often understand how our bodies are being taxed on a daily basis,” she tells me. “I’ve really just seen a difference in performance and mood and attitude with the more attention I pay to those things. One thing that TAG Heuer does very well is that everything is about detail. Everything is about trying to perform at the highest level of excellence, and so it just felt like a natural fit.”

Visually, the timepiece mirrors the partnership’s twin spirit. The deep-violet and emerald-green detailing isn’t something that you’d normally see, but then again, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill collaboration. The first time TAG Heuer and New Balance have joined forces, the timepiece, along with the FuelCell SC Elite v5 running shoe, speaks to the shared pursuit of performance that underpins both brands.

“Our goal was to create a watch paired with a shoe that truly serve people who want to surpass themselves,” Antoine Pin, CEO of TAG Heuer said. “Working with New Balance challenged us to rethink what runners expect from their gear. Every choice from the materials to the training plans to the design was made to support people who treat running as a craft. We are very proud to be able to provide a tool that can be trusted when it is time to put in real work.”

Off the Track

Away from the rigours of professional performance, Sydney radiates calm. Her faith anchors her and her community; her husband, friends, and coach help provide a sense of belonging that transcends the track.

“I’m really inspired by the people around me and the community,” she explains. “Track and field is a great platform to be able to encourage young athletes and inspire the next generation, but I think even more so the personal relationships off the track. The people in my everyday life that I get to be in proximity to really inspire me; those personal relationships that I know, whether I win or lose this race. I have people behind me who love me, support me, and vice versa.”

She’s also a student of the sport’s growing culture. “It’s special. Track and field is maybe not the most popular sport, particularly here in the States, but we’re seeing a trend upwards in running. There are so many run clubs here in LA. I personally understand the joy and freedom that I feel when I run. So being able to see so many other people now feel the same emotions that I get when I am on the track; that’s fun to be a part of.”

Her advice to everyday runners? Consistency.

“Consistency is just found in what you do daily. It’s one day at a time,” Sydney says. “It can become overwhelming and sometimes discouraging because some days you’re going to feel better than others. Some days you’re going to get a little further or run a little faster than others. You just have to worry about today and doing the best with this moment, whether that’s you get a little workout or you have a really great day and you get the longest workout you’ve ever had. Consistency is found in what you do daily.”

Looking Back

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is, by any measure, a generational talent. A record-breaker from the very beginning, at 16, she became the youngest American track and field Olympian in 40 years when she qualified for the Rio 2016 Games. It was a landmark moment that Sydney believes was a great honour, but looking back, she wishes she could have enjoyed it a little more.

“Looking back, it was just so new, all of it. At that moment, I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be there,” she reveals. “It’s easy now to look back and be like, ‘Well, what are you talking about?’ But I think in that moment, the fear of the unknown was very heavy on me.”

“If I could go back and tell 16-year-old Sydney something, it would be to just enjoy these moments and trust that things are going to work out the way that they’re supposed to,” she continues. “I didn’t enjoy the Olympics in 2016 because I was so scared, and I wish I had had someone just tell me to relax, whether you make it to the next round or not, enjoy this because you’re here for the reason.”

For all her titles, McLaughlin-Levrone isn’t done chasing time. The 47.78 wasn’t a conclusion, but merely the start of something new. Now, the three-time Olympian is on a mission to push herself to the very limits of human performance. Call it grit, determination or even obsession, but the matter of purpose is not up for debate.

“There is always something to improve upon,” she says. “There are definitely times where the motivation can feel like it’s running thin; the monotony of getting up every single day and running around the same oval. But I think what motivates me is really just the pursuit of excellence in whatever I do. There’s always something I can do better. There’s always something. I just naturally want to chase that.”

The TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E5 New Balance was released in October 2025. The limited edition smartwatch offers a host of sports-focused innovations and features, including heart rate monitoring, calorie and step counters,, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, blood oxygen saturation, and breathing rate metrics. Dual-band GPS provides accuracy even in the most demanding environments, while the extended battery life ensures that performance never comes at the cost of endurance.

Additionally, the timepiece will feature six exclusive New Balance running plans tailored to a wide range of goals, from building running foundations to conquering marathon mastery.

In terms of design, the Connected Calibre E5 New Balance embraces visual customisation options that include special watch faces: Casual offers minimal elegance, Balance delivers a data-rich runner’s dashboard, and Reskin updates the classic look with the collaboration’s colours. The timepiece is a special edition and is priced at AUD$3,050.