Julien Alfred facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Julien Alfred

Alfred in 2024
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Juju
Born	(2001-06-10) 10 June 2001 (age 23) Ciceron, Castries, Saint Lucia
Education	Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School, St. Catherine High School, University of Texas
Height	1.70 m
Sport
Country	Saint Lucia
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Sprints
College team	Texas Longhorns
Coached by	Edrick Floreal
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 10.72 NR (Paris 2024) 200 m: 21.86 NR (London 2024) Indoors 60 m: 6.94 =AR (Albuquerque 2023) 200 m: 22.01 NR (Albuquerque 2023)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Saint Lucia Olympic Games Gold 2024 Paris 100 m Silver 2024 Paris 200 m Diamond League 2024 100 m World Indoor Championships Gold 2024 Glasgow 60 m Central American and Caribbean Games Gold 2023 San Salvador 100 m Commonwealth Games Silver 2022 Birmingham 100 m Youth Olympic Games Silver 2018 Buenos Aires 100 m Commonwealth Youth Games Gold 2017 Nassau 100 m

Julien Alfred (born 10 June 2001) is a Saint Lucian sprinter. She won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the 100 metres event, setting a new national record of 10.72s in the final. Her medal was the first-ever Olympic medal for Saint Lucia. She then won a silver in the 200 metres. Alfred also won the gold medal in the 60 metres at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Alfred was a silver medalist in the 100 metres at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She is the joint North American indoor record holder for the 60 metres, and was the first woman in NCAA history to break the seven-second barrier over the 60 m. Alfred is a three-time individual NCAA Division I champion.

Biography

Alfred was born in the south Castries community of Ciceron. Her father died when she was 12 years old. She attended Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School in Saint Lucia (2013–2015) and St. Catherine High School in Jamaica (2015–2018). She then pursued a bachelor's degree in Youth & Community Studies at the University of Texas in the United States, combining academic studies and athletics.

Alfred was a Central American and Caribbean U15 champion in 2015. Both that year and in 2017, she was recognised as Saint Lucia’s Junior Sportswoman of the Year. As a junior athlete, she was the Commonwealth Youth Games 100 m champion in 2017, when the Games were held in Nassau, Bahamas. She also captured silver in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina behind Nigeria’s Rosemary Chukwuma.

2022

In 2022, Alfred had the all-time best NCAA performance in the 60 m at the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships, running a fast 7.04 s in the heats. Then at the age of 21, she became one of the top 30 fastest women ever. Her run of 10.81 s (+1.7 m/s) in preliminaries of the women’s 100 m at the Big 12 Conference Championships in Lubbock, Texas on 14 May was a Saint Lucia national and championship record. It also marked her as the fastest woman ever from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. At the time, only six Caribbean women had ever run faster, and in the NACAC region 17. The same month, she ran a wind-aided 10.80 s (+2.2 m/s) at the NCAA West Preliminary Round - the fastest time ever recorded under any conditions at the event. She won the 2022 NCAA Division I 100 m/m title in 11.02 s (+0.2 m/s) the day after her 21st birthday, completing an unbeaten collegiate season in that event. Running for the University of Texas, she became the first track athlete from Saint Lucia to win a Division I championship, and just the second Saint Lucian overall, after high jumper Jeanelle Scheper. She next went on to win her event at the inaugural Caribbean Games in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe in a time of 11.07 seconds (−0.2 m/s).

2023

On 25 February 2023, Alfred broke for the fourth time existing collegiate record and became the first woman in NCAA to ever dip under 7 seconds over the 60 metres with a time of 6.97 s at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock, TX. Her time moved her up to eighth on the world all-time list. She also achieved the second-fastest all-time collegian mark in the 200 m of 22.26 s, behind only Abby Steiner, to become the fourth-fastest woman of all time. On March 11 at the NCCA Indoors in Albuquerque, New Mexico (at altitude), Alfred improved at both these events with times of 6.94 s and 22.01 s respectively to take both titles and move to second on both respective world all-time lists. With "the greatest ever one day sprint double", she missed Irina Privalova's 60 m world record from 1993 by two hundredths of a second but equalled Aleia Hobbs' North American record. In the 200 m, only Merlene Ottey’s 21.87 s dating back also to 1993 had been faster. Julien went on to compete in the women's 100m race at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial, crossing the finish line with a time of 10.89 seconds, resulting in a victory over sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson.

After the end of the 2022–23 academic year, Alfred and TCU football star Max Duggan were named as Big 12 Conference Athletes of the Year.

Selected for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, she qualified for the final of the 100 metres and finished in fifth place. She also competed in the 200 metres at the Championships, and qualified for the finals and finished 4th.

Alfred (left) at the 2024 World Indoor Championships

2024

She won gold in the women's 60 metres at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, with a world leading time of 6.98 seconds. It was Saint Lucia's first ever World Athletics Indoor Championship medal.

She finished second in the 100 metres at the 2024 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in a time of 10.93 seconds. Alfred ran a lifetime best and equalled the stadium record in the women's 100 metres at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica on 1 June 2024, running 10.78 seconds. On 12 July 2024, she won the 100 metres in 10.85 seconds at the 2024 Herculis Diamond League event in Monaco. Alfred set a new national 200m record of 21.86 seconds as she finished second behind Gabrielle Thomas at the Diamond League meeting in London on 20 July.

She won gold in the women's 100 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris with a national record time of 10.72 seconds, which earned Saint Lucia its first-ever Olympic medal. She also secured a silver medal in the 200 metres with a time of 22.08 seconds, finishing behind Gabrielle Thomas.

Alfred's victory in the Olympics sparked celebrations in Saint Lucia, with the government subsequently declaring 27 September 2024 as "Julien Alfred Day".

Achievements

International competitions

Representing  Saint Lucia

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Result
2016	CARIFTA Games, U18 events	St. George's, Grenada	5th	100 m	11.90
			5th (h3)	200 m	25.34
2017	Commonwealth Youth Games	Nassau, Bahamas	1st	100 m	11.56
2018	CARIFTA Games, U20 events	Nassau, Bahamas	5th	100 m	11.68
	Youth Olympic Games	Buenos Aires, Argentina	2nd	100 m ev.	23.22
2022	Caribbean Games, U23 events	Basse-Terre, France	1st	100 m	11.07
	World Championships	Eugene, OR, United States	– (sf)	100 m	DQ
	Commonwealth Games	Birmingham, England	2nd	100 m	11.01
			–	200 m	DNS
2023	Central American and Caribbean Games	San Salvador, El Salvador	1st	100 m	11.14
	World Championships	Budapest, Hungary	5th	100 m	10.93
			4th	200 m	22.05
2024	World Indoor Championships	Glasgow, Scotland	1st	60 m	6.98
	Olympic Games	Paris, France	1st	100 m	10.72 NR
			2nd	200 m	22.08

NCAA titles

• NCAA Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships
  • 100 metres: 2022
  • 4 × 100 m relay: 2022
• NCAA Division I Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships
  • 60 metres: 2023
  • 200 metres: 2023

Recognition

• USTFCCCA Women's Indoor National Track Athlete of the Year: 2023
• Big 12 Athlete of the Year: 2023

See also

In Spanish: Julien Alfred para niños