She just turned 17 on Sunday, Aug. 7.
She will begin her senior year at Union Catholic High School in less than one month.
In a week – on Monday, Aug. 15 – she will be competing on the biggest stage of her young lifetime.
Born in New Brunswick, a resident of the tiny Middlesex County town that goes by the name Dunellen, and a legend in Union County’s Scotch Plains when she competes for her high school Vikings, Sydney McLaughlin has sparked such interest in the ongoing Olympic Games Rio 2016.
When she qualified a month ago for the Women’s 400-meter hurdles event, you practically could have felt the entire area of Scotch Plains leading up to Dunellen shake.
That’s how proud everyone is of this exceptional, already world-class, young phenom athlete.
So much has already been written about her.
You’ve probably seen her face and films of her track prowess on television already if you’ve been following the Olympics.
Next for McLaughlin (5-9, 132) is the event she qualified for. She will compete on Monday in the Women’s 400-meter hurdles competition.
This time the world – including her family and friends of Union and Middlesex counties – will be watching her.
The 2015-2016 Gatorade National Girls Athlete of the Year and most decorated high school girls’ track and field performer the Garden State has ever produced will take her talents to the next level in what may just be the first of many Olympics games for her.
