Track and field is starting to see more and more athletes step outside the events they became famous for. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol stepped into the flat 400m and 800m races from the hurdles. While Rai Benjamin has tested himself more in 200m and flat 400m events outside his usual 400m hurdles. And if that was not enough, now, long jump Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall is experimenting with an event she last competed in nearly five years ago, and she has scored a big win in it.

On May 8 at the Ward Haylett Invitational in Manhattan, Tara Davis-Woodhall lined up for the women’s 100m hurdles for the first time since 2021. Running into a -1.0 headwind at the R.V. Christian Track, the Long Jump Olympic champion won the race in 12.99 seconds. Michenainda Aritus finished second in 13.91, while Dekenya Webb came third in 14.70.

Tara was so impressed with the victorious performance that she shared a post on Instagram captioned, “Well that was fun, let’s do it again!”

Before the hurdles win, Tara had shared that she is “Honestly enjoying the hurdles so much. Getting out of my comfort zone and learning my body so much.”

The rationale behind this experiment? Well, Tara confessed, “I’ve used the hurdles to get stronger and faster. This season is all about growth and moving forward. Excited for the season to start.” And the interesting part is that hurdles were never some side event for her.

Long before her dominance in the long jump, Davis-Woodhall was both a hurdler and a long jumper in the pit. As a high school athlete, Tara Davis set a national record of 13.01s in the 100m hurdles and a California state record of 12.95.

 

In fact, in her final high school track meet ever, at the 2017 CIF California State Championships, she won the 100m hurdles, long jump, and the triple jump. Davis-Woodhall clocked 12.83 in the 100m hurdles. And although that time was faster than the national high school record, it was wind-aided with a +3.7m/s wind.

Still, it remains one of the fastest high school hurdle performances ever under any conditions. Later, during her freshman season at Georgia, she ran 13.04 in the 100m hurdles at the 2018 Texas Relays, which at the time became the second-fastest mark in program history.

And if you look closely, her progression through the years shows she was always a naturally talented hurdler. She ran 13.38 in 2016, improved to 12.95 in 2017, followed it with 13.09 in 2018 and 13.50 in 2019, before eventually reaching her personal best of 12.75 in 2021. Then things began to change.

In 2021, Davis-Woodhall set NCAA long jump records, competed in the Tokyo Olympics, and found herself among the world’s best jumpers. From there, it was just a natural step towards the long jump. That decision eventually led to an Olympic gold in Paris and a World gold in Tokyo.

So yes, in Tara Davis-Woodhall’s case, the return to hurdles makes sense because it was always a huge part of her career growing up. But what made athletes like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol move away from the events where they were already dominating?

Why did Sydney and Femke switch their track events?

For Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the shift mostly came from wanting a new challenge. After years of rewriting history in the 400m hurdles, there was not much left for her to prove in the event. By August 2024, she had already broken the world record five times and lowered it to 50.37 seconds at the Paris Olympics, where she won another Olympic gold medal.

So, she decided to move into the flat 400m, which felt “uncomfortable,” but that discomfort was exactly what attracted her to it. Her coach, Bobby Kersee, and her team also believed she had the raw speed to become elite in the open 400m.

“My coach (Bobby Kersee) loves boxing terms,” Sydney explained. “He said, ‘You’ve got to go take the belt. It’s not yours. You’ve got to go earn it.’ That’s what we wanted to do today.”

She also admitted there were doubts surrounding her move. “There was a lot of doubt from a lot of people, I think, for me coming into this event.” The gamble eventually paid off massively. Sydney went on to win the world title in the flat 400m in Tokyo while running 47.78, the second-fastest women’s 400m time ever recorded.

Meanwhile, Femke Bol’s situation was even more surprising. After spending years battling Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles, the Dutch star announced she would step away from the event and begin transitioning to the 800m instead.

Unlike Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Bol’s switch pushed her into an entirely different type of race. But for Bol, that uncertainty was part of the appeal. “There’s a good chance I’ll never run the 400m hurdles again,” she admitted. “I think it’s always an option, but the plan is really to be able to run a really good 800m.”

She also explained that the unknown excited her more than staying comfortable in an event she had already mastered. At the same time, she made it clear she understood the risks involved. “I’m not afraid of failing on the track. I’m not living in a fairy tale. It’s an illusion that I can immediately compete with the best in the 800 and win. That will take time; I just have to see if I get there.”

That is what makes this recent trend in track and field so interesting. Athletes who have already reached the top are willingly stepping into uncertainty again instead of staying safe inside the events where they already became superstars. And now, Tara Davis-Woodhall appears to be doing something very similar with her own return to hurdles.

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