The sprinter from the Caribbean country has her eyes fixed on making history for Saint Lucia at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
Since its debut at the Pan American Games in 1995, the island nation of Saint Lucia has won four total medals, all of which have come in Athletics.
Dominic Johnson became his country’s first medalist at the Games by winning the bronze in men’s pole vault at Santo Domingo 2003, with Levern Spencer adding her name to the history books with her own bronze in the women’s high jump at Rio 2007.
Spencer solidified her place in history by winning Saint Lucia’s first gold medal at the continent’s top multisport event at Toronto 2015. She then successfully defended her title at Lima 2019 to make her a two-time champion at the continental Games.
With Santiago, Chile preparing to welcome the best athletes of the Americas to compete once more at the Pan American Games this October, another athlete hopes to have her name written in golden letters in the history of her country.
At just 21-years-old, Julien Alfred is already the second fastest woman in history in the indoor 200m event. Her 22.01-second time at the 2023 NCAA Athletics Championships placed her only behind Merlene Ottey of Jamaica’s world-leading 21.87-second record set in 1993. She also became the first woman in the NCAA to break the seven-second barrier in the 60m dash, improving her time to 6.94 seconds (fourth all-time) in the championship final to win her fourth total collegiate title.
Alfred started her career with a gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games of Nassau 2017 in the women’s 100m and followed up that performance with a silver at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games in the same event.
In 2022, Julien earned a silver medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games before adding a gold at the inaugural Caribbean Games held on the French island of Guadeloupe. Her time of 11.07 seconds in the 100m in Guadeloupe would have been good for the first place at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, ahead of superstar Elaine Thompson of Jamaica.
Now with Santiago 2023 on the horizon, Alfred is preparing to compete in her first Pan American Games and ready to put her country on the map as her teammates Johnson and Spencer have done at previous Games.
She hopes to make Saint Lucia’s national anthem ring out at Chile’s National Stadium by conquering the competition in the women’s 100m or 200m, or possibly both. Saint Lucia hopes, too, and eagerly awaits her performance on the continent’s biggest athletics stage this October.
