Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred has enjoyed a historic season, as a result of which the 23-year-old is likely to end the year with a trip to Monaco.
The European principality will host the World Athletics Awards in December.
Based on her 2024 accolades and her current world ranking, it is all but guaranteed that Alfred will earn an invitation.
From 1988 to 2022, the title of World Athlete of the Year was bestowed on one male and one female athlete each year.
In 2023, awards were presented for the top athletes in track, field, and out-of-stadium events.
A three-way voting process normally determines the finalists from 10 nominees, announced by World Athletics in October.
Fans can vote via World Athletics’ social media platforms. The World Athletics Family and World Athletics Council will count for 75% of the final tally.
As of Thursday, September 19, Julien Alfred was fourth in the women’s rankings on the World Athletics website, behind only Femke Bol, Beatrice Chebet, and 2023 Female Track Athlete of the Year, Faith Kipyegon. She passed Sha’Carri Richardson of the USA on August 13 as the top-ranked female sprinter.
The former University of Texas speedster had five of the ten best runs of her career in 2024, over 60m, 100m, and 200m indoors and out.
She ends the year with World Leads over 60m and 200m indoors, while she is second fastest in the 100m and third in the 200m outdoors.
She saved her best for the big occasion, winning 60m gold at the World Indoors Championships in Glasgow, 100m gold at the Paris Olympics, and taking the top prize in the 100m at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, the Diamond League final.
No athlete has ever won those three titles in the same calendar year.
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the DL final and Olympic gold in 2012 when she also won silver in the 200m in London. But the Caribbean icon captured her only World Indoors title in 2014.
American legend Gail Devers competed long before the Diamond League was inaugurated in 2010. She won gold in the 100m at Barcelona 1992 and repeated the feat in 1997. in 1993, she won World titles in the 100m, 100m hurdles, and 60m indoors.
Alfred is in exclusive company indeed. The champion from Ciceron was one of just four women with multiple individual medals at the Olympics, also winning silver in the 200m.
Kenya’s Chebet took gold in the 5000m and 10k. Her fellow countrywoman, Kipyegon, won the 150m and was second in the 5K. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands took bronze in the 5K and 10K before winning the marathon.(TF)
