Julien Alfred’s win within the girls’s 100m sprint on the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday evening was one of many extra shocking performances of this yr’s video games.
Not solely as a result of she upset American (and heavy favourite) Sha’Carri Richardson, but additionally as a result of she gave island nation of St. Lucia its first Olympic medal. Of any type. Ever. It additionally simply so occurred to be a gold medal.
Alfred ran the 100m in 10.72 seconds, the eighth-fastest girls’s time in historical past. Richardson took house the silver medal with a time of 10.87 seconds whereas fellow American Melissa Jefferson took house the bronze at 10.92 seconds.
Richardson entered the competitors as one of many favorites to win, an end result that turned much more probably when Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was unable to compete within the semifinals race because of an obvious harm. Richardson was not solely trying to declare America’s first gold within the 100m since 1996, but additionally discover redemption after she was barred from competing within the Tokyo Olympics because of a constructive take a look at for THC.
Previous to her dash for gold, Alfred narrowly defeated Richardson of their semifinal warmth, which set the stage for her upset win. St. Lucia, a small island nation within the Caribbean Sea, has been competing within the Olympics since 1996 and has constantly despatched a minimal of two Olympians in each video games since. The nation had simply by no means made its solution to a podium till Saturday. That gold got here in one of many prime occasions of the Paris Video games and kicked off a large celebration again house.
