Good morning all, Back in 2008, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone disclosed how Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross fueled her Olympic dream.

Back in 2008, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone disclosed how Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross fueled her Olympic dream.

When Alaya Armbrister, then six years old, first saw Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at the Jennifer Hudson Show, she said, “I watch you and I like to watch you.” For the four-time Olympic gold medallist, though, things weren’t all that different from Armbrister’s age. Though the young track and field star had lofty goals, the Olympics in 2008 were the real catalyst for a dream to come true. McLaughlin-Levrone described in her book Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith how a race involving Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross altered her course in life. The 400-meter hurdler saw Felix and Richards-Ross as her heroes, just as Armbrister saw McLaughlin-Levrone as one of hers. The eight-year-old made her own decisions about her future because of what they did in Beijing.

In her autobiographical book, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone confessed imagining herself “running beside Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross, track icons who took and kept the lead for the United States that day.” “I jumped up and cheered, pumping my fists in the air,” added the Olympic champion, recalling how she reacted as Team USA won a close-fought final. “I was eight years old, sitting on a small stool in our living room, enthralled by the spectacle of the women’s 4-by-400-meter relay,” wrote the author.