Saint Lucia's sprint queen Julien Alfred eyes Olympic victory in Paris

The sprint queen of Saint Lucia, Julien Alfred is anticipating that the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is going to be a celebration of victory for her home country and the Caribbean by extension.

She is set to make her Olympic debut during which she will be competing in the women’s 100m and 200m from Jully 26 to August 11 in Paris.

Alfred is also the reigning Senior Sportswoman of the Year and secured gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow during which she ran 24.60m in 6.98 seconds.

The Saint Lucian athlete is the former student of Ciceron Combined, Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School, St Catherine High School in Jamaica as well as the University of Texas. It is to be noted that she left the university with the distinction of winning the 2023 Bowerman Award. 

Not only this, but on May 25, 2024, Julien Alfred placed second in the Women’s 100m in Eugene, Oregon, USA at the Eugene Diamond League Prefontaine Classic. There, she recorded a season’s best time of 10.93 seconds.

In addition to this, Alfred won the women’s 200 meters at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in a time of 22.16 seconds to gain victory in her first Diamond League Gold medal on July 9. 

The young female secured an impressive victory in the women’s 100 meter at the Monaco Diamond League on July 12, 2024 in a time of 10.85 seconds. 

It is to be noted that her most recent podium finish was this last weekend at the London Diamond League which was held at the London Stadium, where she bagged the silver medal in the 200m, clocking 21.86 seconds.

Her other world class performances included Central American and Caribbean Games in 2023 in San Salvador when she won a gold in 100m.

In 2022, she won a silver in 100m at Commonwealth Games, Birmingham. Also in 2018 and 2017 she achieved silver and gold medals respectively at different games in the category of 100m.