Why Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was Not Be Allowed To Compete In Diamond League 200m/400m Finals__Sydney Explains

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will not be allowed to compete in the Diamond League 200- and 400-meter finals at the Memorial Van Damme meeting in Brussels next week because she is not eligible. Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny announced the news on Wednesday at the technical meeting for the Weltklasse Zurich meet, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.

Yesterday, the Memorial Van Damme had annnounced that McLaughlin-Levrone, the double Olympic champion and world record holder in the 400m hurdles, had committed to run the 200/400 double at the Diamond League final, which will be held on September 13-14. But according to Diamond League rules, McLaughlin-Levrone is not eligible to compete in the DL final as she hasn’t competed in regular season Diamond League meets this year.

The vast majority of athletes qualify for the final by accumulating points during the 14 regular-season meets, but McLaughlin-Levrone did not achieve any qualification points in either the 200 or 400. There is an exception that would have allowed McLaughlin-Levrone to compete: the “Global Wild Card,” a rule the DL instituted last season that allowed Jakob Ingebrigtsen to compete in the 3,000m at the 2023 DL final in Eugene.

But one of the requirements to earn a Global Wild Card is that an athlete must have competed in at least one Diamond League meet that season before the final, and McLaughlin-Levrone has run zero Diamond Leagues in 2024. The DL is holding firm to its rule, which means McLaughlin-Levrone is ineligible to compete in the 200m and 400m finals in Brussels.

There is one meet remaining before the final, tomorrow’s Weltklasse Zurich. LetsRun.com understands that Weltklasse organizers approached McLaughlin-Levrone to run the 400 hurdles in Zurich, but she is not entered in that meet.

This leaves the Memorial Van Damme in a sticky situation. McLaughlin-Levrone is not banned from the meet entirely, but she would not be able to run in any events classified as a Diamond League final, which means a showdown with Olympic 400m champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic almost certainly will not happen. McLaughlin-Levrone could still run an event outside of the main program, but her competition would likely pale in comparison to fields in the DL finals.

Update: In an email to LetsRun.com, Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny confirmed that McLaughlin-Levrone is not eligible to compete in the DL final events in Brussels.

“It is not about allowing a specific athlete to compete or not,” Stastny wrote. “It is about rules and criteria which must be fulfilled by all to becoming eligible to compete at the WDL Final. Ms McLaughlin-Levrone does not fulfill those criteria, either by accumulating enough points or receiving a wild card…The final leg of the Diamond League is not an invitational meeting, and any athlete proposed for a Global Wild Card must have competed at least in one of our events during this season.”

Talk about this story on the world-famous LetsRun.com messageboard: