Julien Alfred won the first-ever Olympic medal in St. Lucia’s history with a commanding win in the women’s 100m final on Saturday.
Alfred erupted down the soaking Stade de France track in 10.72 seconds to claim victory the final, finishing 0.15 seconds ahead of reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who took silver in 10.87 seconds for her first Olympic medal.
Richardson’s U.S. teammate and training partner Melissa Jefferson also claimed her first Olympic medal, taking bronze in 10.92 seconds.
After Jamaica swept the women’s 100m podium at the Tokyo Games, the U.S. now occupies two spots on the Paris podium in this event for the first time since 1996. But it’s St. Lucia’s 23-year-old Alfred who stands as the Olympic champion, and the island nation of under 200,000 people will have its anthem play in an Olympic stadium for the first time.
Alfred’s gold medal continues her rapid rise in the sport, which included top-five finishes in the 100m and 200m at 2023 Worlds and a 60m championship at 2024 World Indoors.
Richardson, meanwhile, is at last an Olympic medalist.
For Richardson, the face of the sport, the silver medal culminates a winding path to becoming the face of the sport. In 2021, she qualified for the Tokyo Games at the U.S. Olympic Trials, but a subsequent sample revealed that she had tested positive for cannabis use. That led to a one-month suspension that kept Richardson out of the Tokyo Olympics.
The 2021 suspension pained her deeply, and it came shortly after the death of her biological mother. Richardson then slogged through much of the next season on the track, even failing to qualify for the 100m final at the 2022 U.S. Championships, where she finished a shocking sixth and thus missed out on that season’s world championships in her home country.
Richardson vowed to climb back to the top of her sport and prove that she was the world’s fastest woman. She rallied to win her signature event, the 100m, at the next year’s U.S. Championships. In her post-race interview with NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson, Richardson sent a clear-cut message to the world.
“I stand here with you again and I’m ready, mentally, physically and emotionally,” she began.
I’m not back, I’m better.
Those five words — I’m not back, I’m better — have stuck on her mystique in the year since. Much of America and world has since become smitten with Richardson, whose lightning speed on the track is matched by a bold, vibrant personality and statement fashion. The former LSU Tiger elevated herself to international sensation status ahead of her Olympic debut.
But entering this week, Richardson was an athlete not only without an Olympic medal, but without as much as a step on an Olympic track. No longer — Richardson is an Olympic silver medalist.
But on Saturday at Stade de France, it wasn’t “Jamaica, Land We Love” or the “Star-Spangled Banner” blaring on the loudspeakers. It was The National Anthem of Saint Lucia, and Alfred with the gold medal around her neck.
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