2024 Olympics: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone's gold adds to her glory, while COVID robs Noah Lyles of his story

The most unbeatable track athlete in the world -- and one of the best athletes in the world, period -- represents the United States and her name is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

McLaughlin-Levrone isn't just the best 400-meter hurdler in women's history. When you see her go, you understand how her specialty is unique. Most other runners just don't make it look this easy, because they can't make it look this easy. Her form is perfect. Every time. You know how we see these world records get broken with every Olympics and the times are wildly improved from athletes two generations prior? That's what it's like watching McLaughlin-Levrone, only she's doing it against contemporaries.

It's like she beamed back from the future. That's how much better she is than the field.

Given the way she has separated from her competition and redefined the boundaries of what's physically possible in women's hurdling, she can fairly be called the greatest hurdler of all time.

And on Thursday, the sports world bore witness once again to her transcendent dominance.

McLaughlin-Levrone set her sixth world record in the 400 hurdles, easily winning gold by running and hurdling the big purple oval at Stade de France in 50.37 seconds. (Her time was so good it would've nearly landed McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400-meter finals -- the race without the hurdles.)

The win gives McLaughlin-Levrone an astonishing reality: She is the only woman to ever win back-to-back gold medals in the 400m hurdles. What a phenomenal Olympian. McLaughlin-Levrone can claim supremacy over her sport like Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky do in theirs. It is a joy to watch her so effortlessly gallup past so-called competitors. It makes the pre-race chatter even more hilarious after the fact. Prior to Thursday's run there was faint curiosity if this event would wind up being the scene of yet another upset in track at these Olympics. After all, they'd been popping up with regularity; we even saw it materialize in the men's 200-meter final. (More on that in just a moment.)

Would Femke Bol of the Netherlands run the race of her life and out-do McLaughlin-Levrone? Turns out she couldn't even out-do Anna Cockrell. Cockrell, an American, took silver (51.87) behind McLaughlin-Levrone, while Bol had to settle for bronze (52.15).

At 25 years old, these Games represent the true star turn for McLaughlin-Levrone. She burst onto the scene in Tokyo, and, yes, in the track and field world she's been the envy of most for years. But in showing out so definitively in front of fans on the Paris stages, McLaughlin-Levrone upped her profile to the highest tier for an American Olympian, especially when you factor in how she hasn't lost in the 400m hurdles in five years.

She's expected to run again in 2028 at the Los Angeles Games, and it's there and then when she could opt to go supernova status. Her talent is so obvious, the temptation to expand her program and run the 400 (sans hurdles), or the 200-meter dash, or basically any race she wants, will be there.

The hype will be earned and widespread. McLaughlin-Levrone has already cemented her reputation among the all-time great American Olympians. In 2028, she goes for pantheon status. We'll all be waiting, eagerly, to see her chase it.

And speaking of pantheon status ...

Noah Lyles' bid for the double halted by COVID

Noah Lyles had something rarely attainable available to him at these Games. The 2024 Olympics were set up to catapult the gifted track speedster to American superstardom, to be the face of American track. In order to truly break through to all-time status, Lyles -- an elite sprinter -- would need to clear two massive hurdles in order to get there.

He had to pull off the grueling, ever-coveted double: win gold in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.

Carl Lewis is the only American to ever do that. Lyles got halfway there on Sunday night when he roared from behind to barely beat Jamaica's Kishane Thompson in one of the most dramatic 100-meter finals in history. Lyles' chest beat Thompson's torso by five one-thousandths of a second: 9.784 to 9.789 seconds.

Then, a conspicuous thing in the past two days. Lyles was seen wearing a medical face mask prior to stepping into the open air of Stade de France. Was it precautionary?

No. It was COVID. We now know that, because Lyles confirmed as much on Thursday after he failed in his quest to take the double. This also explains why Lyles didn't even finish first in his semifinal heat on Wednesday.

"I woke up early, about 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and I just was feeling really horrible, and I knew that it was more than being sore from the 100" Lyles said on NBC. "My first thought was not to panic. I was thinking I've been in worse situations, I've run with worse conditions, I felt, and we just took it day by day, trying to hydrate as much, quarantined off."

Lyles, whose competitive spirit is as evident as any athlete at these Olympics, said he never debated not running in the 200. (If you weren't aware, it's been official Olympics policy to allow athletes to compete while having COVID , in essence treating it like other common respiratory illnesses.)

Running sick, Lyles still managed to earn a bronze, but he was clearly not himself. He was beaten by his Team USA comrade, Kenny Bednarek, who took silver, and was downright dusted by Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, who won the gold after running the fifth-fastest 200 in history.

Tebogo sprinted to first in 19.46 seconds. Bednarek reached the line in 19.62, while Lyles was well off his personal-best time of 19.31 that he set two years ago.

Down (but not out) with disease, Lyles would've needed to run something borderline alien in order to win gold. Tebogo won the first gold for Africa ever in the 200. It was also the first gold for Botswana in any Olympic event.

"It's taken its toll for sure," Lyles said on NBC after the race. "But I've never been more proud of myself for being able to come out here, and getting a bronze medal, where last Olympics I was very disappointed. This time, I couldn't be more proud."

Lyles' outspoken nature has led to him be something of a polarizing athlete. He infamously took aim at NBA players for proclaiming "world champion" status despite competing only on North American soil. So the loss was a moment for his critics to crow.

Except, peer into the race through his eyes. Work for four years, and not run in the 200? It was policy to allow him to compete with COVID. Obviously he was going to give it a go. When Lyles -- who has long battled asthma, remember -- says he's proud of winning bronze, I believe him. It's understandable how we expect U.S. athletes to win gold and can feel let down when they fall short of that. But the Olympics hand out three prizes for a reason.

Sometimes, just making it to the podium can feel like a victory. Lyles got the 100. Ironically, his best event is where his body failed him, through little fault of his own.

He leaves Paris with at least two medals. And now we wonder: Is Lyles' Olympics over? He was on pace to run the anchor leg in the 4x100 relay, but Lyles indicated he wasn't likely to run in it when asked by Lewis Johnson on NBC on Thursday. So, we'll wait and see there.

That's the tricky thing about these races. No matter how we think they're gonna go, the ending is never guaranteed.

Unless your name is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.