Julien Alfred wins at Paris 2024 Olympics, after delivering a sensational performance in the women 100m finals. The rain poured on as the all-star cast stepped up to the races for the women's 100 meters event, but nobody could have predicted the headline that would flood the papers the next morning. St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred shocked the entire world, breezing past US superstar Sha’Carri Richardson to win her country's first ever Olympic medal.
Who is the 100m Olympics Champion?
Julien Alfred was just a young girl growing up on a tiny island of just about 200,000 people when she was asked who she wanted to be when she grew up. Her reply was the boldest you'll ever hear, “The next Usain Bolt”. St. Lucia had never won an Olympic medal and barely had any training facilities to make it happen. But she became one of the biggest stories of the Olympics, powering past a lineup that had some of the fastest women in the world to win the Olympics women’s 100m gold, against all odds.
Alfred crossed the line in 10.72sec, a national record that also made her the eighth fastest woman in history. As she crossed the line, she held her hands in disbelief before ripping her name off, previously pinned to her vest, and showing it off to the crowd. No one, surely, will ever forget it now after this quiet destruction.
The Caribbean island had previously fielded athletes at seven editions of the Olympics without winning a medal, but as the gun went off, Alfred never looked like being caught. From the moment she hit the front, it became obvious her country's duck was about to be broken.
‘‘I'm thinking of God [and] my dad, who didn't get to see me. He passed away in 2013. Dad, this is for you. I miss you. I did it for him, I did it for my coach and God.” Alfred told journalists after her race.
Alfred burst onto the sprint scene at the start of this Olympic year by winning the 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships - also a first by an athlete from St Lucia. Before that, her only other previous podium finish at an international event came at the 2022 Commonwealth Games where she won silver.
The Rest of The Track
Coming in second place behind Alfred was the American world champion Sha'Carri Richardson, who ran the race in a time of 10.87, with compatriot Melissa Jefferson third with 10.92. Great Britain's Daryll Neita narrowly missed a podium finish by four-hundredths, crossing the line in 10.96.
Neita’s finish was the best time by a British female athlete in an Olympic sprint final in 64 years but that won't matter much as she failed to at least finish on the podium. Speaking to BBC Sport, Neita said, ‘‘I'm finding it hard to find words at the minute, literally speechless, so close to the medal, so close.’’
Neita's compatriots Dina Asher-Smith and Imani-Lara Lansiquot didn't make it to the final, while the iconic Jamaican sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had to withdraw from the competition before her semi-final.
What Next for Alfred?
Having now delivered at the 100m event, Julien Alfred will now reset for the 200m as she guns for further history, inspired by Jamaica's sprint king Usain Bolt.
She said, ‘‘Usain Bolt won so many medals, I went back this morning and watched his races. I'm not going to lie, it was all Usain Bolt's races this morning.’’
After winning the Olympics women’s 100m gold, can the underdog from the little Island of St. Lucia shock the world a second time?