Last night was INCREDIBLE! My life long friend, Sydney McLaughlin, advanced to the Semifinals of the Olympic 400m Hurdles! Sydney just turned 17 last Sunday and I was lucky enough to be with her and a bunch of our friends and family on her special day to sing Happy Birthday and to pray for her adventure to Rio! Sydney is the youngest US track athlete to compete in the Olympics for almost 50 years. And the person who was a little younger in the 1972 games was a high jumper, so she may be the youngest US Olympic runner ever! And experts predict she will be an Olympic star for at least 2 more Olympics after this one.

It’s kinda crazy to see your friend all over the place. People.com? She’s there. Glamour Magazine? She’s there. USA Today? She’s there. Facebook, twitter and instagram? Oh yeah, she’s alllll over there! Including tweets from about a million boys who want to marry her. LOL

If you read my Famous Friday about her back in March, you know that Sydney and her siblings have been friends to Project RACE for years, serving as Project RACE Teen Panelists and on the Project RACE Kids Krew and helping with our minority focused bone marrow registry drives in New Jersey. In that article I wrote, “I am pretty sure we will get to cheer her on in the Olympics one day.” Well one day has come even sooner than I thought!

Be sure to watch her tonight – scheduled for 8:10 PM EST!  And if she qualifies, (which she really could because going in she had the 5th fastest time in the world this year) you can cheer her on in the finals Thursday 8/18 at 9:15 PM EST!

GO SYD!!!  We are so proud of you.

– Karson Baldwin, President Project RACE Kids