Though Alfred’s accomplishment Saturday instantly transformed her into an international sports star, she entered the 100 finals as a relative unknown, at least among the casual sports fans who tune in to watch the Olympics.
In the world of track and field, however, she has been a decorated figure for several years, including at the University of Texas, where she competed from 2018 through 2023.
Over the 2021-22 and 2022-2023 athletic seasons — her final two years as a college athlete — Alfred won the 100-meter and 4×100-meter events in the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 60-meter and 200-meter events in the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Following the completion of her college career, she then beat Richardson in the 100 at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary that August, she qualified for the women’s 100 finals and finished in fifth place, 0.28 seconds behind Richardson, who won the race. Additionally, she finished fourth in the 200, behind, in order, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and Americans Gabrielle Thomas and Richardson.
She won the 60 at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March, posting a time of 6.98 seconds that gave Saint Lucia its first medal ever at the competition. At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in May, she finished second in the 100, just one-tenth of a second behind Richardson.
Once it came time for the Olympics, she was ready to fulfill a lifelong goal.
“Growing up, I always said I wanted to be one of Saint Lucia’s first medalists … first gold medalists,” she said to Olympics.com in August 2023. “I’m really looking forward to going to the Olympic Games and trying to deliver at that level for my country.”
In a fateful 11-second burst, she was able to do just that.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS:Meet the members of Team USA for the 2024 Summer Olympics
Julien Alfred country
Alfred was born and raised in Saint Lucia, an island nation in the Caribbean with only about 180,000 residents. Alfred is from Castries, Saint Lucia’s capital and largest city.
Julien Alfred college
Though she grew up in Saint Lucia, Alfred came to the United States for college, where she attended and competed for the track and field team at Texas.
