American sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record as she clinched gold in the women's 400m hurdles at the Paris Olympics on Thursday.

McLaughlin-Levrone won the final in 50.37 seconds at Stade de France, eclipsing her previous record of 50.65 set in June.

Fellow American Anna Cockrell took silver in 51.87 while Femke Bol of the Netherlands claimed bronze in 52.15.

"It's amazing to see our sport continue to grow, for people to want to watch the 400m hurdles," McLaughlin-Levrone said. "Just a lot of hard work put in this year. I knew it was going to be a tough race. An amazing competition all the way round."

The 25-year-old from New Jersey said she was motivated to reset her goals by the level of competition around her.

"The event is just getting faster and faster," she said. "There's so much depth and that always keeps me on my toes. It makes me want to figure out ways to improve, and get better in the race. I love to be able to improve upon myself."

Bol, also the bronze medalist in this event at the Tokyo 2020 Games, said she was hoping for a better result.

"I maybe went a bit too crazy so I died a bit at the end," Bol said. "I'm not too happy about this, but it's 400m hurdles, you will always die at some point. It's amazing to get a second medal at this tournament. I want to upgrade my bronze medal but I defended it this time."