Fairchild Studio: How do you reflect on your time spent competing in Paris two years ago, winning gold medals, setting new world records and beating your previous times?
Sydney Levrone: Paris still feels surreal when I think about it. I trained hard and believed in the work I’d put in, but there’s still something you can’t quite prepare for when it actually comes together like that, on that stage, in that moment. Breaking the world record again and getting to share the podium with my relay teammates, I don’t think I’ll ever fully wrap my head around how blessed I was in that moment.
Looking back now — two years removed and with so much life that’s happened since — I try not to hold onto it as some kind of peak. It’s one chapter and honestly a lot of it came down to the people around me — my coaches, my family and my faith carrying me as much as anything I did myself. If anything, it taught me to hold my own plans loosely. It’s part of what gave me the trust to step away from the hurdles afterward and try something new in the flat 400, even though that meant leaving behind an event I’d built so much of my identity around.
Fairchild Studio: Women in sports is having a huge moment — as an athlete, what has been most exciting for you to witness in the rise of women’s sports? How is it helping reshape the perceptions of women athletes?
S.L.: The most exciting part is watching young girls grow up now with so many visible examples of what’s possible. Not just one lane, but dozens. When I was coming up, you could point to a handful of women who’d broken through.
Now there’s a whole wave, across different sports, different personalities, different ways of showing up. It’s reshaping perceptions because people are seeing us as full people. Competitors, yes, but also businesswomen, designers, mothers, storytellers. That range is what changes minds. It’s not just “she’s fast;” it’s “look at everything she’s building.”
Fairchild Studio: As a new mom and from a family of runners, what are the lessons you have learned along your career that you hope to pass on to your newborn daughter?
S.L.: Becoming a mom has already reshaped how I think about everything I learned on the track. The biggest lesson I want to give Savannah is that discipline isn’t a punishment; it’s just what you do for the things and people you love.
I also want her to know that setbacks aren’t the end of the story; some of my most important growth came from races and seasons that didn’t go the way I planned. And I want her to see, growing up in a family of athletes, that you can inherit a love for something without it having to look identical to what came before you. She gets to define her own path; I just hope I can hand her the tools.
Fairchild Studio: How do you see athletes getting involved in more fashion, beauty and lifestyle spaces playing a role in the visibility of women’s sports and empowering athletes?
S.L.: Every time one of us builds something of our own — a collection, a brand, a campaign — it’s proof that our value doesn’t start and stop at the finish line. It shows brands and fans that there’s a real audience for women’s sports that extends into culture more broadly. Practically, it matters for the business side too. It creates more opportunity, more investment and more reasons for people to pay attention to what we’re doing on the track or the court because they’re already invested in who we are off it.
Fairchild Studio: How do you approach your own personal style? How do you think fashion serves as a platform for athletes to express their individuality?
S.L.: My style has always leaned pretty minimalist and clean; that’s just naturally where I gravitate, more than it being a statement. I love quality pieces that feel simple, but intentional.
What’s been great about the New Balance partnership is that it’s given me a real outlet to bring that into product, not just wear it. With this third collection, I took the lead on creative direction in a way I hadn’t before and it let me build pieces that reflect how I actually live, what I train in, what I wear after and what feels like me on an ordinary day.
That’s what fashion can do for athletes: it turns “this is what I like” into something tangible other people can be part of and it lets fans see us outside of competition mode.
Fairchild Studio: Talk to us about working with New Balance on your latest collection. What does a collection like this mean for you?
S.L.: This collection was the most personal one yet. New Balance really encouraged me to lead the creative direction, which I truly appreciated. That gave us the apparel pieces and on the footwear side, we covered the full range of how I move through a day: the 9060R for everyday, the FuelCell Rebel v5 for training miles and the SC MD-X v3 for race day. Getting to shape something that spans from competition to just living my life is so meaningful to me. It’s the clearest picture yet of who I am as an athlete and as a person.
Fairchild Studio: What do you think brands should prioritize when partnering with women athletes to ensure the relationship feels both authentic and impactful?
S.L.: Listen first. The partnerships that have worked best for me are the ones where the brand wants to know what I actually care about and how I actually live, rather than handing me something to represent.
Authenticity isn’t a tagline; it shows up in the details, in whether an athlete had real input, whether the product reflects who they are. Fans can tell the difference and honestly, so can we. When a brand gets that right, it doesn’t feel like an endorsement; it feels like a genuine extension of the athlete.
Fairchild Studio: How important are these conversations and how do you see this evolving in the future? What do you hope for the future of women’s sports?
S.L.: This conversation is one of the most important ones happening in sports right now and I hope it keeps moving from “look how far we’ve come” to just being the norm. Where investment, visibility and opportunity for women athletes aren’t treated as a moment but as a given. For the future, I hope my daughter’s generation grows up not even having to ask these questions, because the answer is already obvious. That would be the real marker of progress.