Track superstar Sydney McLaughlin and former NFL player Andre Levrone Jr. officially tied the knot at Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison, Virginia, on Friday. The newlyweds shared photos from the wedding on social media Monday.
“May the success of our marriage not be gauged by fame, fortune, or flash. But by submission to one another, a supernatural unity, & the pursuit of reconciliation for others,” Levrone wrote in his Instagram post.
McLaughlin and Levrone announced their engagement in August. After Levrone proposed, McLaughlin posted pictures on Instagram along with a letter to her future husband.
“I fall in love with you more and more each day off of the strength of your faith,” she said in the post. “Andre, you are the most God-fearing, passionate, honest, loving, hard working, protective, and genuine man I’ve ever met. I see Jesus in you.”
Before ending the post with Proverbs 18:22, the 22-year-old pointed to God as the center of their relationship.
“This union will impact lives for His kingdom, and that’s what excites me most,” she wrote. “I have no fear. I will keep my eyes on you, as you keep your eyes on Him. You’re the perfect man to lead me, and I cannot wait to follow.”
The engagement came shortly after McLaughlin took home two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, setting a world record in the 400-meter hurdles and grabbing the second gold medal in the women’s 4x400m relay.
She joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast in November to discuss her incredible performance at the Olympics, how she is finding her identity in Christ rather than track, and the impact Levrone’s had on her life.
“Meeting Andre is one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” she said on the podcast. “He’s such an amazing friend and such a great man of God. He’s truly helped me in my walk and has always constantly encouraged me in that. And it’s been such an amazing thing to have him as an example of what it means to live a life like Jesus.”
Levrone went undrafted out of the University of Virginia in 2017 and spent three seasons in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars. He retired in 2020 at the age of 25.
In November 2020, Levrone came on the Sports Spectrum Podcast and talked about walking away from his NFL dream, reading God’s Word out of adoration, and how injuries in high school and college tested his faith.
The couple told People they are planning to go on their honeymoon later this year once McLaughlin’s track season is over.
Daniel Roberts at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST WITH MATT FORTE, FEATURING DANIEL ROBERTS
Daniel Roberts is a two-time Olympic track and field athlete representing the United States. In college, he was a four-time All-American at Kentucky, where he broke numerous track and field records. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Roberts took the silver medal in the 100-meter hurdles.
Today on the podcast, Daniel Roberts discusses the importance of faith in overcoming adversity, and how his identity has evolved beyond athletics. He emphasizes the significance of daily spiritual disciplines and the difference between knowing about God and having a personal relationship with Him. Roberts also shares about his Olympic experiences and his aspirations for the future, including the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Bronze medalist Taliyah Brooks (left) and gold medalist Anna Hall of the U.S. after the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are still three long years away, but if Saturday at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was any indication, the U.S. heptathlon team in L.A. may be the strongest ever. Anna Hall, a 24-year-old from Colorado, captured gold in Tokyo with 6,888 points, while Taliyah Brooks, a 30-year-old Texan, tied for bronze with 6,581 points.
Taliyah Brooks shines in the heptathlon at Worlds, scoring a personal best 6,581 points to take bronze behind Anna Hall and Kate O’Connor ⚡#WCHTokyo25 coverage presented by @brooksrunning
Hall entered the 2024 Paris Olympics with lofty expectations after taking silver at worlds in 2023, but finished fifth while still regaining her form following knee surgery that January. Brooks earned her way to her first Olympics in Paris and finished 11th. Both have impressed since then.
At the Hypo Meeting in Austria on May 31 and June 1, Hall recorded 7,032 points, a personal best that tied her for second on the all-time performers list. Joyner-Kersee, who has posted the top six scores in history, holds the all-time high of 7,291.
In March, Brooks won bronze in the pentathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. She then finished second in the heptathlon at Décastar in France in July and second again — this time to Hall — at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in August. Brooks posted a then-personal-best 6,526 points at the competition, which she surpassed on Saturday.
Both Hall and Brooks credit their resilient mindsets to the work of God in them.
Later in the podcast, Hall — who was also featured in Sports Spectrum’s Summer 2024 magazine — said reading the Bible has led to tremendous spiritual growth in her life.
“He is my Lord and Savior,” she said. “Jesus is the reason we’re here and that we’re able to have hope, and that affects all aspects of my life, but definitely sports. So for me, that’s been something I’ve started to get more comfortable sharing — my own growth and my faith over the last few years.”
“We are supposed to go and make disciples,” she said. “We each have unique gifts, and we’re supposed to use those gifts. I think my time here on earth, if I’m doing those things, then I will experience eternity.”
"Go and make disciples. That is what we're meant to do."
As Hall and Brooks seek to help usher in a new golden age for the United States in the heptathlon, they both know they are here ultimately as witnesses to the work of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom on earth.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone celebrates winning gold at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Sept. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been rewriting history for years. Already one of the greatest hurdlers ever, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time world record breaker added a new chapter Thursday in Tokyo, this time in a new event.
Running the flat 400 meters at a world championship for the first time, McLaughlin-Levrone won gold with a time of 47.78 seconds, the second-fastest time in history. Only German Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60, set in 1985, has ever been faster.
“I think barriers are broken when the time is right,” McLaughlin-Levrone said after the race when asked if chasing the world record was her goal. “I think records come when they’re supposed to. It’s really just about executing and trusting the process.”
Silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran 47.98, the third-fastest time ever. McLaughlin-Levrone, however, became the first person to win world titles in both the 400m hurdles and the flat 400.
It was not an easy road. After planning to debut in the flat 400m at the 2023 World Championships, injury forced her to withdraw. Choosing the flat 400m this season was a leap of faith, one fueled by a desire for growth after dominating the hurdles.
“My coach (Bobby Kersee) loves boxing terms,” she told the media. “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. There was a lot of doubt from a lot of people, I think, for me coming into this event.”
In the semifinals this week in Tokyo, she broke Sanya Richards-Ross’ 19-year-old American record with a 48.29. In the final, McLaughlin-Levrone lowered her best by another half-second.
But she says the story isn’t only about medals or records. It’s about her faith in God.
“Just grateful,” she said Thursday after her win. “You know it’s there, and when you put the work in and see it come to fruition, it’s always a bit of disbelief. I knew it was going to be a really fast race with great competition, so to see it all come together, there’s always just a bit of awe and wonder.”
A lot of hard work, a lot of prayer and a lot of “trusting the process” went into it, she said.
“I know there was a lot of doubt from a lot of people in me making the switch, and I just wanted to show myself I could do it,” she said. “Ultimately it was trusting the Lord and trusting the process. I’m just really grateful.
“It just shows that anything really is possible, you’ve just got to work for it and work really hard. Just trust the Lord.”
That reliance on God has marked her entire career. She’s been unashamed in sharing her faith on the track and beyond, even when it risked criticism.
“There’s been a lot of talk that I’ve received just about, you know, ‘You might not want to talk so much about [faith]. You might lose endorsements, you might lose deals, this, that, and the third,’” she said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2021. “But, I mean, I don’t live for the approval of people, so I don’t have to worry about any of those things. And even if an endorsement or something wants to leave, I know that God will provide for me in the way He sees fit. So I’m not going to compromise the truth just to make people feel more comfortable.
“…I continue to speak the truth because I know it’s what I’m called to do, and just grateful to have community around me that supports me through that even if all the people outside of that don’t.”
Her boldness has only deepened in recent years as she’s relied on her relationship with Christ to help battle perfectionism and anxiety.
“I think this past season of being injured, not being able to perform at my best, and really having to lean on the Lord in all of this was just a great reminder that not everything is always going to be perfect,” she said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in January 2024. “Not everything’s going to go your way. You’re going to face trials of many kinds, but showing the genuineness of your faith, like James 1 talks about. … Whatever next year brings, I’m going to stick to the same script of going out there to honor and glorify Him and leaving it all out there on the track.”
Her gold medal in Thursday is proof of that posture. She didn’t need to run for validation, but instead ran free, trusting God with the outcome.
“I love being honest and open with people and sharing the truth,” she said on the podcast in 2024. “I think first of all, that’s the most loving thing you can do. I think for me, the biggest part is just not trying to lean on myself for that strength in order to do that. … I think sometimes I tend to do that out of my own willpower as opposed to truly leaning on the Lord and seeking that discernment and wisdom first. And I think that’s where I’m being refined right now is staying rooted in the Vine and not trying to wander off and do it the way Sydney wants to do it.”
As she looks toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, her hometown, McLaughlin-Levrone hasn’t ruled out an attempt at competing in both the 400m hurdles and flat 400m.
“We’re going to have to talk about the schedule on that one,” she told NBC on Thursday with a smile. “I’m going to need some days off in there if that was the case because it’s tough fields in both events. You have to respect them. So, in order to put the best performances together, you have to make sure your body’s ready to do that.”
For now, though, the reigning champion of the one-lap race is simply content.
“Ultimately it was trusting the Lord and trusting the process,” she told the media. “I’m just really grateful.”
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST WITH MATT FORTE, FEATURING CHAUNTÉ LOWE
Chaunté Lowe is a former track and field athlete who represented the United States in four Olympics (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016). She won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships in the same event. In 2012, she captured a high jump gold medal at the World Indoor Championships. She is the American record-holder in the women’s high jump.
Today on the podcast, Chaunté Lowe shares her inspiring journey of faith, resilience and overcoming adversity. From her tumultuous childhood in California to her Olympic aspirations, Lowe discusses how her faith in God has shaped her identity and helped her navigate life’s challenges, including her 2019 battle with breast cancer.
