Racing in the pouring rain, Julien Alfred stormed to the 100m title to create history for Saint Lucia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Saturday (3).
Alfred won her nation’s first ever senior global medal in athletics when she gained world indoor 60m gold in Glasgow in March. Now she has become her nation’s first Olympic medallist in any sport and she made sure that maiden medal was a gold one, clinching a clear victory in a national record of 10.72 to beat world champion Sha’Carri Richardson and her US compatriot and training partner Melissa Jefferson.
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Alfred – lined up in lane six, with Richardson to her right and Jefferson to her left – got off to a great start. Although Richardson powered through in trademark style, 23-year-old Alfred couldn’t be caught and Richardson settled for silver in 10.87, as Jefferson got bronze in 10.92.
The top six all dipped under 11 seconds and Britain’s Daryll Neita was next over the finish line in 10.96, finishing fourth ahead of USA’s Twanisha Terry and Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji.
After the final, Alfred explained that she had spent her morning rewatching some of Usain Bolt’s races, the Jamaican sprint great having won six individual Olympic titles between 2008 and 2016. Jamaica had dominated the women’s 100m at recent editions of the Games, too – the nation’s athletes claiming the past four crowns.
Two of those were won by seven-time global 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, but after qualifying from the heats the 37-year-old – racing at her final Olympics before retirement – did not line up to contest the semifinals.
Her compatriot Tia Clayton – the 19-year-old training partner of two-time world 200m champion Shericka Jackson, who decided to focus on the half lap event in Paris rather than double up in the 100m – secured seventh place in the final ahead of Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith, who pulled up and jogged over the finish line.
A multiple NCAA gold medallist for the University of Texas, Alfred first made her mark on the major stage in 2017.
After winning 100m gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games that year and Youth Olympic Games silver in 2018, she became a major senior medallist in 2022 when she finished second at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham behind Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, winner of the past two Olympic 100m titles.
After finishing fourth in the 200m and fifth in the 100m at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, Alfred got that 60m gold in Glasgow and now has another medal of the same colour to add to her collection. She’ll return to the Stade de France for the 200m heats on Sunday.
“I’m going to start crying. I’ve been trying to stay strong as much as possible. It means a lot to me, my coach, my country, which I’m sure is celebrating now,” she said.
“You don’t ever see me celebrate like that. I’m just happy it happened in the biggest race of my career. I watched Usain Bolt’s races this morning. I watched how he executed. I grew up watching him.
“Growing up, I used to be on the field struggling. With no shoes, running barefoot, running in my school uniform, running all over the place. I hope this gold medal will help Saint Lucia build a new stadium, to help the sport grow.” (World Athletics)
