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The 23-year-old Dunellen native is back in the spotlight, this time starring in the latest “This is SportsCenter” commercial for ESPN, which cleverly highlighted her record-setting career.
In the 15-second commercial, ESPN personality Hannah Storm approaches McLaughlin at the company’s offices, where she is sitting in a cubicle adorned with some of the relics of her athletic past.
Storm asks the sprinter to catch up, to which the New Jersey native responds that “Yeah, I’ve got 51.46 seconds right after lunch, or I’ve got 51.41 seconds later this afternoon. Oh, wait, I have 50.68 seconds right now!”
Each of those very specific numbers holds special meaning to the gold medalist and her fans, who are familiar with her breaking records. Usually her own.
The 51.46 seconds represents her time at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when she broke her own 400-meter hurdles record to claim gold. McLaughlin only got quicker from there, and the 51.41 seconds matches her time in the same event at the 2022 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which was also a world record waiting to be broken.
The 50.68 figure is her 2022 time at the 2022 World Athletics Championships - again setting a world record a month after her previous personal best.
“This is SportsCenter” has been one of ESPN’s most popular series of ads, which have been running since 1995. Each skit features athletes or mascots who are prominent at the time, in deadpan situations, usually at the company’s Bristol office, mocking aspects of sports and broadcasting, typically while dressed in uniform while suited up ESPN employees go about their day around them.
McLaughlin’s commercial will reportedly make its debut on Saturday, Feb. 4 during the rivalry matchup between Duke and the UNC that tips off at 6:30 p.m. and will air on ESPN.
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