Making history through achieving a personal goal and seeing the accomplishment conjure mass enchantment is an experience only a few will encounter in their lifetime.
Since Julien Alfred stormed across the finish lines of the women’s 100m and 200m races at the 2024 Olympics, jubilation has not subsided in Saint Lucia.
The magnitude of the achievement has enamored thousands, particularly as it is stacked on consistently steady, poised shoulders.
Undoubtedly, Alfred’s calm confidence makes being a top athlete look effortless, despite her own declarations of the personal battles she has had to overcome to get to this point.
When the 23-year-old emerged from flight AA2295 on September 24 at 1:40 pm, she brought her hands over her mouth, appearing overwhelmed as she took in the crowd gathered on the Hewanorra International Airport tarmac.
Not long after, her now familiar smile became affixed, and her arms stretched into gratuitous waves. She was emotional as she embraced her mother, visibly summoning composure through suppressed tears.
These images will recur in retellings of Saint Lucia’s history forever, particularly the star athlete’s benevolent exchanges with onlookers and embracing of the young athletes of the Survivors Club, of which she was once a member.
The young athletes had lined up, waiting to share a moment with the woman who will likely remain a source of inspiration throughout their formative years.
These pleasantries Alfred impressively maintained throughout the entire pre-scheduled motorcade from Vieux Fort to Gros Islet, which lasted nearly seven hours.
It was her poise and unwavering even-keel demeanour that struck many there in-person and viewing the live coverage of the motorcade.
Watching Alfred repeatedly encounter euphoric screams and cheers of gathered crowds, each hour ticking on, darkness falling upon Saint Lucia as nighttime rolled in. “Not a break?” One onlooker wondered out loud.
“Come on people. She needs to rest. Has she eaten?”—Another wrote into the livestream’s chat box while someone else added, “She’s waving and hugging everybody. I really love you and your humbleness, [Julien].”
The procession stopped only for hi-fives, the signing of autographs, and for the star athlete to dedicate a moment to jump and dance amidst a crowd of residents in Ciceron, where she grew up.
In the heart of the crowded capital, people ran across streets in the dark to catch a glimpse of and possibly enjoy an embrace from Alfred.
As she approached the Castries City centre in the dark, she was still dancing, waving, and signing personal items of impassioned onlookers.
While onlookers were able to drop their guards once outpaced by the procession, some returning home, Alfred continued onward, encountering large crowds through to Gros Islet town.
The motorcade was officially declared finished at nearly 10:00pm, when Alfred would be escorted to Cap Estate—the exasperation expressed by concerned onlookers hardly reflective in her spirit.
At the pre-scheduled La Ressource Combined School rally the following morning, Alfred arrived on time, still smiling and alert, despite a long day wearing a hero’s hat, engaging with thousands the day prior.
Alfred’s poise in these moments, as she fielded the country’s unfiltered joy over her achievements, seemed ‘an opposite side of the same coin’ as the fiercely confident yet demure young woman the world watched commandingly walk out onto the Olympic track for the 100m final on August 3 and the 200m final on August 6.
How Alfred continues to wear pressure so serenely, masking the extent of her sacrifices as she repeatedly rises to the occasion has not gone unnoticed.
This is what demands respect and forces others to listen when she takes an opportunity to express herself just like she did on Wednesday morning, urging the hundreds of students gathered at the school saying, “There were so many times that I’ve cried, threw in the towel, I just wanted to be with my family, and go back to life before track, but no, I kept going. So, to all of you standing in front of me, my advice to you is to go after your dreams.”
