Olympics 2024: Why you shouldn't miss clash of true greats in 400m hurdles final showdown

Athletics icons Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol will face off for gold on Thursday night. 

BRILLIANT ORANGE: Femke Bol of Team Netherlands in full flow during the women's 400m hurdles round 1. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Athletes like this don’t come along often. Once in a generation, if you’re lucky. In the 400m hurdles, there’s never been two like them, athletes whose freakish talent and outlying, jaw-dropping ability makes everyone stop and watch and stare in awe as they blitz a lap of the track and soar over 10 barriers – all of it in a shade over 50 seconds.

That’s an absurd, astonishingly difficult thing to do, but Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol make it look easy.