Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone experiences glitch during ESPYs presentation with Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford

American sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford experienced a technical issue while presenting at the 2025 ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 16. McLaughlin-Levrone shares a history with the ESPYs, having first appeared at the event in 2016 as a high school athlete. This year, along with presentation duties, she was also nominated for Best Athlete in Women's Sports.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is regarded as one of the best hurdlers in the world, with four Olympic gold medals. She made her breakthrough at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, where she finished third in the 400m hurdles, becoming one of the youngest American track athletes to qualify for the Olympics. She registered a world-record time of 50.37 seconds in the women's 400m hurdles at Paris 2024 to earn the ESPY nomination.

While presenting the Gatorade Best Players of the Year award for female and male high school athletes, McLaughlin-Levrone and Stafford experienced a technical glitch with the teleprompter. Stafford quickly let the crowd know that it wasn't working before the issue got resolved.

“Can we work on the prompter there? We’ve got a black and white screen, sorry about that America, there you go," said Matthew Stafford.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone recently competed at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic, where she placed first in the 400m event with a time of 49.43 seconds.

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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone didn't think she could qualify for the Olympic team in 2016

McLaughlin-Levrone at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic - Source: Getty

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone recently discussed her performance at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team trials. In an interview on the Ready Set Go podcast earlier this month, McLaughlin-Levrone was asked whether she thought she had the talent to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team, to which she replied:

"Honestly I didn't, to be honest with you. That whole year, I mean I was a junior in high school so obviously you're focused on all your junior meets and all those kinds of things. But we knew the Olympic trials were coming up, and I think my coach at the time wanted to, obviously go to the trials to get the experience." (2:27 onwards) "I think by that point my PR was maybe 55 something, so I knew I could qualify to go to the trials based on time. But yeah man I just remember that final at the Olympic trials and coming around the last turn, and I was like, "I think there's three of us tied for third right now" and just giving it everything I had and when I crossed the line I was like "What just happened?"" she added.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone finished third in the women's 400m hurdles at the 2016 U.S Olympic Trials, setting a junior world record time of 54.15 seconds.

Edited by Sumeet Kavthale