Julien Alfred becomes the first ever person to win a medal of any colour for her island nation, St. Lucia. She stunned pre-race favourite Sha’Carri Richardson in the women’s 100m race and won the Gold medal at the Stade de France, Paris.
In a race that was held after torrential rain, Alfred finished her race in 10. 72 seconds and Richardson missed her Gold medal with a mere 15 seconds as she finished at 10.87 seconds.
Alfred is St Lucia’s first Gold medallist. St Lucia is an island nation with a small population of 1, 80,000, and Alfred became the fastest woman in the world when she clinched her first-ever medal.
“Growing up, I’ve always said I wanted to be one of Saint Lucia’s first Olympic medallists… first gold medallist at the Olympic Games,” said Julien Alfred.
Alfred was trained by the American collegiate system, the NCAA. She ran for the Texas Longhorns from 2018 to 2023. After winning the USTFCCCA All-America selection 11 times, she was also named in the Big 12 female athletes of the year in 2023.
Remembering her father's words, whom she lost at the age of 11, Alfred said, “he believed that I could be an Olympian.”
As she was handed with gold medal, she continued, “To come out with the win, happy I was able to do it. I want to attribute it to (my father). … He’d be so boastful of his daughter being an Olympian.”
For her preparations for the 100m final, she watched Usain Bolt’s YouTube videos.
“I just watched how he just executed,” Alfred mentioned.
Reportedly, after winning the race, she also celebrated like Usain Bolt would.
“You don’t ever see me get to celebrate like that,” Alfred said.
She ended, “I’m just really happy, it happened on the biggest stage of my career.”
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