Records keep getting broken on the track at theTokyo Summer Olympics.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” McLauglin, 21, told reporters after her competition. “What a great race. I’m just grateful to be out here celebrating that extraordinary race and representing my country.”
She narrowly toppedDalilah Muhammad, also of Team USA and the defending Olympic champion. (The Netherlands' Femke Bol got bronze.)
“I saw Dalilah ahead of me with one to go. I just thought ‘Run your race,’ " McLaughlin said.
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Muhammad, 31, likewise said she knew it would be a fight between them. Andthis isn’t the first timeMcLaughlin has broken a record of Muhammad’s.
“You can’t always feel the race, especially when you have so many lanes in between you,” the latter told reporters on Wednesday. “But just knowing the competitor that she is, I expected her to be there. I knew she’d be there.”
“She’s definitely a strong competitor,” Muhammad said of McLaughlin, whom she hugged after they crossed the finish line, “but we’re teammates first.”
Muhammad also beat the previous world record with her silver-medal performance, even as she ended up 0.12 seconds behind.
“No mixed emotions here today,” she said. “There’s always things that you want to do better, just as an athlete, as a competitor. There are small little check-ups that I felt I could have done better in that race, but it’s not me beating myself up because it didn’t happen to be an Olympic gold performance.”
“I would just say focus on your lane. Literally and figuratively,” McLaughlin told PEOPLE. “Other people are going to peak at different times. And I think even to this day in my pro career, people will run fast at different times and it can throw you off if you’re not focused on what’s ahead of you.”
As for her record-breaking run this week: “I can’t really [get] it straight in my head yet,” McLaughlin said Wednesday. “I’m sure I’ll process it and celebrate later.”
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
source: people.com
