Julien Alfred, sprint queen
In the Paris Olympics, Julien Alfred, Took gold in the 100 meters and silver in the 200. She followed that up in early 2025 by winning the 60 meters in the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. This year she has recorded 6 Diamond League victories – Stockholm, Oslo, Monaco, London, Brussels at the Diamond League final in Zurich. I was privileged to be in the stadium for all 6 Diamond Leagues, to chat to her after some of them and to sit down with her – on her birthday of all days – in Oslo. I wish to add that for a global superstar, obtaining the interview and the amount of time that she gave me was beyond exemplary. In the 2023 World Championships she came 4th and 5th so may feel that she has unfinished business with the world outdoors in Tokyo.
Her talent was first noticed in elementary school, in 4th grade when she started beating the boys. She told me she normally beat them “but if I lost, I’d cry”. She grew up in the small Caribbean island, St Lucia which has a population of only 180,000 people. Levern Spencer is the only other athlete from the island to reach the top level. Aged just 14 she went to Jamaica where it was felt her talent would develop better. This was followed by study at the University of Texas before becoming pro.
Representing her country is always high in her thoughts. She spoke to me about leaving Paris “with two medals, the first Olympic medal for my country”. The realisation of what she had achieved came gradually: “There were several moments when that hit me and you would probably have seen me crying at those moments. That’s when I realised, like what had happened and how my life was about to change and just realizing it was a dream come true, when I crossed that line. And then when I got to the area when I got my clothes back and realising that I had literally just won the Olympics, the 100 meters. But too that my dad is not here to see it. [He had died when she was young]. So every time you saw me getting emotional was a moment that I realised like: ‘wow, I’m really the champion’”.
From 4th and 5th in the World Championships in 2023 to 1st and 2nd in Paris, I asked her what had made the difference: “Just hard work, to be honest”. She added that many people don’t understand how demanding the collegiate season is. As a professional she can focus on…
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