Julien Alfred on how she ready to turn into Olympic 100m champion

The Olympic 100m champion opens up about equipping herself to have the ability to win sprinting’s biggest prize

When AW catches up with Julien Alfred, she has been squeezing some London sightseeing into an itinerary full of private appearances. The 23-year-old is on the town because of her new position as a tourism ambassador to Saint Lucia, serving to to unfold the phrase to the world concerning the small Caribbean nation of round 180,000 inhabitants from which she hails.

It’s a pure match. Alfred is the nation’s most excessive profile sporting export, in any case, having turn into the primary Saint Lucian ever to win a medal at a world athletics championships – taking 60m gold on the World Indoors in Glasgow again in March. If that weren’t sufficient trigger for celebration, then a nationwide vacation was declared when Olympic 100m gold and 200m silver medals then got here her means this summer time – performances that every one helped her to return out on high within the voting for AW’s Worldwide Feminine Athlete of the Yr.

“Julien Alfred Day” was celebrated on September 27 because the end result of a four-day lengthy commemoration of her achievements. Requested to call essentially the most memorable second she has skilled since dispatching the world’s biggest feminine sprinters in such emphatic fashion on the purple observe within the pouring rain on the Stade de France and Alfred takes little time to reply.

“I believe simply the influence that I’ve had on a rustic,” she says. “[Seeing] a rustic coming collectively, united, and simply celebrating the gold.” Tellingly, although, she provides: “However I’ve one thing to dwell to this point, as nicely.”

Coping with the best of expectations is a ability Alfred has needed to purchase rapidly in 2024. The yr has not been one stable straight line of gold-tinted glory. She landed in Saint Lucia to a hero’s welcome after that world indoors win and was feted like a conquering hero. For somebody whose early experiences of athletics had concerned working barefoot and infrequently coaching in her faculty uniform, it was loads to absorb. The medal made a big effect in additional methods than one.

Alfred relies in Texas, the place she trains beneath the steering of coach Edrick Floreal and as a part of the sprints group that additionally accommodates Britain’s former world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, in addition to burgeoning Irish expertise Rhasidat Adeleke. It was following a race in Austin through the early levels of the out of doors season the place the 2022 Commonwealth 100m silver medallist realised all was not nicely.

“It was April once I simply felt like I wasn’t myself,” she says. “Each time I stepped out on the observe I felt like there was this heavy weight on my shoulders that I simply actually couldn’t deal with.

“With it [world indoors gold] being Saint Lucia’s first medal, now they had been anticipating a lot from me throughout that point. As a substitute of me specializing in doing it for myself first, being the one who’s been placing within the arduous work and making the sacrifices, I used to be considering: ‘I don’t wish to disappoint my individuals. I don’t wish to disappoint Saint Lucia’. I believe that’s actually the way it happened, after successful the world indoors.”

Alfred admits to having had one thing approaching a breakdown however step one she took in an effort to alter issues round was each easy and courageous. “Speaking to my coach and expressing precisely how I felt,” she says. “He understood and he labored with me patiently to get me prepared for the Olympics. He took me off the observe, we labored mentally and bodily to get me again to the place I’m at the moment.”

Certainly, between the start of Could and the opening 100m warmth of the Paris Olympics on August 2, Alfred raced simply 5 instances, however by the point the largest competitors of her life arrived she felt outfitted for the duty.

Whereas the primary collection of the Netflix documentary SPRINT had skilled its sights on the rivalry between the likes of 200m world champion Shericka Jackson and world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson, not a lot consideration had been paid to the Saint Lucian with the steely glare.

It wasn’t that world indoor title that made Alfred really feel like she may very well be a real contender. It was the Olympic semi-final, when she overcame Richardson with relative ease, that introduced with it the alerts she had been in search of.

There was additional exterior noise to dam out, although. Forward of the ultimate, the media started to swirl with tales as each the American and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce struggled with getting previous safety into the warm-up areas, the Jamaican two-time 100m Olympic champion in the end becoming a member of her compatriot Jackson in having to withdraw by damage.

As soon as the line-up for the Parisian showdown had been confirmed, there was additionally a pre-race deluge to deal with that left the observe glistening and lined with floor water. The situations solely served to intensify the sensation of drama and, because the digicam panned alongside the road of 100m finalists, Richardson seemed fearful. To her left and within the adjoining lane, Alfred seemed fearsome.

In fact, the competition was settled from the earliest levels as Alfred flew from the blocks and opened a considerable hole that might not be closed as she hit the road in 10.72, to Richardson’s 10.87 and the ten.92 of Melissa Jefferson in third.

“When what you’re there for, when your function, you simply can’t permit your self to get distracted,” says Alfred. “With all that was taking place in Paris all I needed to do was keep in mind why I used to be there, concentrate on simply executing my very own race plan and never fear about anybody else.”

Alfred has watched the race again on quite a few events and, regardless of it being such a command efficiency, she admits to not being completely pleased with it. The work has already begun with “Coach Flo” forward of the 2025 World Championships (Alfred has unfinished enterprise there after ending fifth and fourth within the 100m and 200m respectively in Budapest final yr).

“I don’t suppose there’s something specifically that I might change [about the Olympic final],” says Alfred. “I imply, it occurred the way it was speculated to and I can’t change that now, however I believe, going to the world championships subsequent yr, there are fairly a couple of issues that I’ve to work on with my coach. There’s all the time one thing to work on. No person’s excellent.”

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