A small Caribbean island state burst onto the Olympic athletics map on Saturday, Saint Lucia, thanks to the surprise success of Julien Alfred in the 100 meters, ahead of American favorite Sha’Carri Richardson.
According to the criteria of
Saint Lucia had never before won an Olympic medal and made a grand debut in an emblematic athletics event.
The event that generated the most excitement on Saturday was the 100 metres and even the rain was invited to the party, falling heavily on the purple track at Saint-Denis at the time of the final.
World champion Richardson’s mission was to win Olympic gold for the United States, which has not won there since Atlanta in 1996 with Gail Devers.
But nothing could be further from the truth: Julien Alfred, the revelation of the season at 23 years old, was the fastest with a time of 10 seconds and 72 hundredths, relegating the Texan to a bitter-tasting silver (10.87).
“I don’t want to cry. I just ran as fast as I could. This means a lot to me, a lot to my country.”celebrated the young sprinter from Santa Lucía.
Saint Lucia erupted in joy after Julien Alfred’s triumph
This sparked a huge party nearly 7,000 kilometers away, in Saint Lucia, an island country located in the Caribbean Sea, south of Martinique, which is still a French colony. It has a surface area of just 616 square kilometres and, according to a census carried out in 2020, it had 183 thousand inhabitants.
The Saint Lucia Olympic Committee was established in 1987, but was only recognised by the IOC in 1993. Three years later, they took part in their first Games, in Atlanta in 1996, with five athletes travelling. Until today, they had never even dreamed of a medal.
A video began circulating on social media in which hundreds of citizens of Castries, the capital of Saint Lucia, gathered around a giant screen to follow Alfred’s race, who won comfortably.
Once the new champion crossed the line victoriously, the city, which barely has 20,000 inhabitants, erupted in jubilation.
The new Olympic 100m champion had to deal with the death of her father, Julian Hamilton, at just 12 years old. Five years later, just before she won silver at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, her aunt Karen Alfred, who helped raise her, also passed away.
“I’m sure she would have dreamed of me winning a medal and being with me at that moment,” said Alfred, about her runner-up finish in Argentina. This Saturday she achieved the greatest achievement of her career.
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With AFP
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