Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone confirmed her status as one of the most dominant athletes of the modern era with victory in the Olympic 400m hurdles final, breaking her own world record in a time of 50.37 seconds.

“It’s amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles, it’s amazing. Just a lot of hard work put in this year,” she said after the race. “I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way round.”

The 25-year-old confirmed her mastery of an event in which she has now broken the world record six times when she beat the formidable Dutch star Femke Bol (52.15) easily into third at the Stade de France on Thursday night. USA’s Anna Cockrell won silver in 51.87.

“I sacrificed a lot, my family has sacrificed a lot,” said Cockrell. “To do this today, when it counts the most, on the biggest of stages, with my whole family here, we’re all over there crying our eyes out. I’m truly a talker and I have no words.”

McLaughlin-Levrone appeared to barely break a sweat as she came home by a huge margin. She looked up at the video board and gave a quick smile when world record was confirmed. At this point, such achievements are almost routine for her. She is expected to run in the 4x400m relay later this week, where she can win the third Olympic gold of her career.

With Thursday’s gold, she becomes the first American to defend gold in an individual track event since Michael Johnson’s back-to-back 400m golds in 1996 and 2000.

It was a fine birthday present for McLaughlin-Levrone, who turned 25 on Wednesday.

“Grateful to be celebrating my 25th birthday like this. It was yesterday, just a super opportunity, you can’t even imagine,” she said. “My whole family’s here. We’re going to celebrate, we’re going to enjoy this time and get ready for the relay too.”

Bol looked distraught after the race, and admitted she had got her tactics wrong although it’s unclear what she could have done to prevent McLaughlin-Levrone from winning gold.

“I screwed it up,” Bol said. “I’m not sure where I made the mistake. I just got so much lactic acid with 300m to go. I’m not sure why, I really have no explanation. This is just a bad race.”

Earlier in the evening, the Americans won two medals in the 200m: 100m champion Noah Lyles won bronze and Kenny Bednarek took silver behind Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who ran superbly to claim gold. It was revealed after the race that Lyles is suffering from Covid.

USA claimed another gold later on Thursday when Grant Holloway won the men’s 110m hurdles in front of his teammate Daniel Roberts. Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell won bronze. There was relief and joy for Holloway: he is a three-time world champion but had never won an Olympic gold.