from Saint Lucia to Paris, Julien Alfred surprises in 100m – Libération

2024-08-03 21:25:03

The 23-year-old sprinter put his Caribbean island on the world sporting map on Saturday August 3.

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For those who asked the question, here is the answer: Saint Lucia, a Caribbean island that looks like a big rock, has a little over 180,000 inhabitants. Except for a few families, the population of Toulon. On a planetary scale, barely a pinhead. The country followed the Olympic Games for a long time on television, with some distance and greed. The first delegation from Saint Lucia was sent to the Olympic site in Atlanta in 1996. Before Paris 2024, the island had only 31 Olympians, five of whom have made the trip to Tokyo in 2021. The confirmation is almost : Saint-Lucie has never won. an Olympic medal. Even in dreams.

That’s it for the numbers. Modest, dare we say insignificant. But a 23-year-old sprinter, as strong as the wood from which canoes are made, sent all those back to the dustbin of history on Saturday August 3: Julien Alfred placed Saint Lucia on the world map. A straight line on the flowery track at the Stade de France was enough for him to achieve this feat. Ignoring the rain, his outdoor position and his weakness in important competitions, he won in 10”72 the Olympic 100m title that the experts, and undoubtedly many observers, promised for the American Sha ‘carri Richardson, who finished second.

Telling the story of Julien Alfred is not an easy thing, as the new queen of the sprint has increased routes and changes of direction. Discovered by the librarian at his school in Castries, the capital, while having fun challenging boys over 30 or 40 m, and beating them without ever getting tired, Julien Alfred started the sport before youth To leave at the age of 12, after the death of his father. Two years later, his first coach in Saint Lucia found the right words to get him back on track. But, an island with no resources, he went into exile alone in Jamaica.

At 17, a silver medal in the 100m at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires shook his future plans. “I realized that maybe I could achieve great things in sports, he said. For me and for Saint Lucia. The latest change: he received a scholarship and lived in Austin, Texas. At university, he met a Canadian coach, Edrick Floréal, of whom he speaks today as “mentor, mentor and second father.”

On the morning of the final, Saturday, Julien Alfred turned on his tablet in his room in the athletes’ village. Simply, you look at all of Usain Bolt’s victories in the Olympic Games and world championships one by one. “I’m not going to lie, I’ve watched all your parts.”, he explained to the media, as he left music. With her victory in her pocket, the young woman said she thought of God, her father and the Canadian coach. “This lesson, she admitted, wiping away her tears, I do it for them»,. And for Saint Lucia.