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The track has a new queen, and her name is Julien Alfred. Alfred woke up this morning and watched Usain Bolt win Olympic gold medals on YouTube. Then she went out and echoed her idol, leading from gun to tape, streaking away to win this women’s 100m final in utterly dominant fashion in pouring rain at the Stade de France.
She will be royalty in Saint Lucia forever more, too. The tiny Caribbean island had never won an Olympic medal despite sending 31 athletes to Games over the past 30 years. None were quite like Alfred, shy and unassuming but blessed with blistering speed. “National record” popped up on the giant screen beside her time of 10.72 seconds, in perhaps the most irrelevant footnote in Olympic history.
Behind her, American star Sha’Carri Richardson was never in touch and settled for silver in 10.87. Her US teammate Melissa Jefferson clinched bronze in 10.92 as Britain’s Daryll Neita just missed out, finishing fourth in 10.96. Dina Asher-Smith had failed to qualify, going out in the semi-finals.
“Words can’t describe how I’m feeling right now,” Neita said. “I was so close to that medal I’ve dreamed of my whole life.”
For Alfred, it was a poignant night. Her father died when she was 12 and, she said, he had always wanted to see her compete at the Olympics. Even at that age she was already showing her prodigious talent, embarrassing older boys on school sports days. She spent her teenage years in Jamaica studying and developing her technique in the best sprinting environment around, inspired in the age of Bolt.
“I’m thinking of God, and of my dad, who didn’t get to see me,” she said. “Dad, this is for you. I miss you. I did it for him, I did it for my coach, and God.”
Winning Youth Games silver in 2018 gave her confidence and she went on to stun the American college scene at the University of Texas, before winning the World Indoor 60m title this year in Glasgow. Now, the 23-year-old is the Olympic champion.
“It sounds really good, it has a good ring to it,” she smiled.
Videos on social media showed Saint Lucians packed around giant screens celebrating deliriously as their women made history. “I really hope we can get a new stadium,” Alfred said of the impact her achievement would have at home. “I hope we can help youth in the country, help them believe that they can get out of the ghetto. Even if they’re from a small place in the Caribbean, they can get it out. It means a lot to a small island.”
Jamaicans had won four of the last five 100m titles, but one by one their best sprinters fell aside before this final in Paris. The reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was injured before the Games, while Shericka Jackson switched focus to the 200m after a muscle tweak. The great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was third quickest in the morning’s heats but was missing from the semi-finals, presumably injured, in what might be an end to one of the great Olympic careers.
That switched Alfred’s focus to the Americans, and Richardson in particular. Richardson was banned from the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana and this Games was hyped in the US as the moment she realised her destiny, having won the world title in Budapest last year. But she made a typically sluggish start here and never closed the gap.
They shared a curt embrace, with Alfred still wearing the stoic facial expression she had worn all night. Then, with the Saint Lucian flag draped over her shoulders, she let the tears flow.
“I feel honoured to be an ambassador for my country,” she added. “Not many persons know about Saint Lucia. Sometimes I’m in an Uber and they ask where I’m from, and then they say ‘where’s Saint Lucia?’ I think being an Olympic champion, I’m sure people are going to be searching for Saint Lucia now.”
