“First day I got here and I had a nervous breakdown”, she said. “There’s not as much expectation”.
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“I felt a lot more pressure this time”, she said.
McLaughlin, a 16 year-old rising senior at Union Catholic, was originally planning to run at the World Junior Championships (July 19-24 in Bydgoszcz, Poland), but after she placed third in the 400-meter hurdles at Sunday’s U.S. Olympic Trials to make the Olympic Team, those plans changed.
The final two races were the women’s 1,500-meter, where Jenny Simpson, Shannon Rowbury and Brenda Martinez advance to Rio and the women’s 5,000-meter, which ended with Molly Huddle, Shelby Houlihan and Kim Conley taking the top three spots. She’s now in Los Angeles for Tuesday’s Gatorade High School Athlete of the Year ceremony, where she has a very good chance at being named the National High School Female Athlete of the Year.
Past year at the International Association of Athletics Federations’ World Championships in Beijing, Molly Huddle missed a medal in the 10,000m as she raised her arms in acclaim at the line and team-mate Emily Infeld dipped to claim bronze.
She is also part of a track-and-field youth movement.
Five reigning Olympic gold medallists and five current world champions feature on the USA team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Several of those athletes hail from the NY region, including 800 meter runner Ajee’ Wilson, 22, of Neptune Township, N.J., and 200 meter sprinter Deajah Stevens, 21, of Bayside, N.Y.
For McLaughlin, of Dunellen, N.J., making the Rio squad was an afterthought. The scholarship motivated Burleson to make a commitment to never lose a race during his time at the university, and he made good on his promise.
“Sometimes I get so caught up in the fact that I haven’t lost a hurdle race and I come here and there are girls who are faster than me”, McLaughlin said.
The Olympic Trials just wrapped up in Eugene on Sunday, ending what could be the biggest stage most of the athletes have competed in outside of the Olympics themselves.
With her third-place finish, McLaughlin edged out defending US bronze medalist Kori Carter, who dove at the line in a failed attempt to make her first Olympic team.
“She is a beast”. “I was in every single heat with her and she carries herself like a pro and I know she will represent the US amazingly”.
“Sometimes, I just forget that I’m 16”, McLaughlin told the AP. “I’m here just for fun”. Dalilah Muhammad and Ashley Spencer took first and second, respectively, with Muhammad crossing the finish line in just 52.88 seconds. McLaughlin is expected to finally arrive back home on Thursday.
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McLaughlin’s qualifying time on Sunday, 54.15, not only smashed her own junior world record.
