The Olympic 100m champion opens up about equipping herself to be able to win sprinting’s greatest prize
When AW catches up with Julien Alfred, she has been squeezing some London sightseeing into an itinerary packed with personal appearances. The 23-year-old is in town thanks to her new role as a tourism ambassador to Saint Lucia, helping to spread the word to the world about the small Caribbean nation of around 180,000 inhabitants from which she hails.
It’s a natural fit. Alfred is the country’s most high profile sporting export, after all, having become the first Saint Lucian ever to win a medal at a global athletics championships – taking 60m gold at the World Indoors in Glasgow back in March. If that were not enough cause for celebration, then a national holiday was declared when Olympic 100m gold and 200m silver medals then came her way this summer – performances that all helped her to come out on top in the voting for AW’s International Female Athlete of the Year.
“Julien Alfred Day” was celebrated on September 27 as the culmination of a four-day long commemoration of her achievements. Asked to name the most memorable moment she has experienced since dispatching the world’s greatest female sprinters in such emphatic style on the purple track in the pouring rain at the Stade de France and Alfred takes little time to respond.
“I think just the impact that I’ve had on a country,” she says. “[Seeing] a country coming together, united, and just celebrating the gold.” Tellingly, though, she adds: “But I have something to live up to now, as well.”
Julien Alfred (Getty)
Dealing with the highest of expectations is a skill Alfred has had to acquire quickly in 2024. The year has not been one solid straight line of gold-tinted glory. She landed in Saint Lucia to a hero’s welcome after that world indoors win and was feted like a conquering hero. For someone whose early experiences of athletics had involved running barefoot and often training in her school uniform, it was a lot to take in. The medal made a big impact in more ways than one.
Alfred is based in Texas, where she trains under the guidance of coach Edrick Floreal and as part of the sprints group that also contains Britain’s former world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, as well as burgeoning Irish talent Rhasidat Adeleke. It was following a race in Austin during the early stages of the outdoor season where the 2022 Commonwealth 100m silver medallist realised all was not…
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