Fairy tale from the 5-athlete sports delegation at the 2024 Olympics

Although only coming to the 2024 Paris Olympics with 5 athletes, the Saint Lucia sports delegation made a big splash at the Olympics.

Julien Alfred celebrates after finishing - Photo: Reuters

More than 70,000 spectators at the Stade de France stadium witnessed the moment Julien Alfred accelerated and won the gold medal in the women's 100m event in a spectacular way. The number of spectators was nearly half the population of Julien's hometown - Saint Lucia. Perhaps most Vietnamese people have just heard the name of this country for the first time. Saint Lucia is a small country located in the Central American - Caribbean region, with an area of ​​600 km2 and a population of about 170,000 people. At Paris 2024, their sports delegation had only 5 people, but then created a shocking event.

Difficult childhood

Before her explosive performance in the final, Julien was already considered a contender for the top 100m title. She won the 60m gold medal at the 2024 World Indoor Athletics Championships and led the women's 100m semi-finals at the Olympics. A day before the final, the American media published Julien's story and compared her to superstar Sha'Carri Richardson. Both experienced difficult childhoods, many family pains, and then exploded from the American college sports system. Julien's father, Julian Hamilton (Julien's mother's surname), passed away when she was only 12 years old. Immediately after winning the gold medal, Julien mentioned her father with a choked voice: "I believe my father was always by my side to witness this moment." More than 10 years ago, the pain of losing his father made Julien so depressed that she wanted to give up athletics. In 2015, at the age of 14, Julien had the opportunity to study in Jamaica, and that revived the young girl's motivation to train. "My mother couldn't go with me, but she didn't stop me. So I went to Jamaica. It's not easy growing up without family," Julien said. Why Jamaica? Of course, it's the homeland of Usain Bolt, and also the cradle of speed athletics. If running events are divided into two - sprint and endurance, Kenya and Ethiopia are representatives of the endurance group, while the US and Jamaica are the leaders of the sprint group. Before Julien appeared, the women's 100m event was dominated by Jamaican runners for four consecutive Olympic Games. Sprinters going to Jamaica to study is like table tennis players going to China to "study".

Explosion from NCAA

Julien Alfred's name began to rise from the 2018 Youth Olympics, when she won a silver medal in the 100m event. A few months before, Julien received another bad news when her aunt Karen Alfred, who had raised her since childhood, passed away. But at this point, Julien's potential was like an arrow on the bow and nothing could stop the Saint Lucia girl anymore. Also that year, Julien received a scholarship from the University of Texas and began working with coach Edrick Floreal. Mr. Floreal leads the University of Texas track and field team and has long been known as a good coach in training young people. Many of Mr. Floreal's students from the University of Texas have become top track and field stars in the world. And Julien is now one of the most brilliant names. After 4 years of dominating the NCAA - the US college sports system, Julien turned professional in 2022 - when she had a bachelor's degree in community studies from the University of Texas. Success did not come too soon, Julien failed at the 2022 World Championships, then showed progress by finishing 4th in the 100m final at the 2023 World Championships. The recent Olympic gold medal was a leap forward but came from a reasonable progression for Julien. The 10.72 seconds in the Olympic final was also Julien's career best 100m performance, helping her surpass Richardson (10.87 seconds). Despite coming from a small country with a population only enough to fill the Stade France stadium twice, Julien was actually trained by two of the world's leading sprinting countries. Along with that is the strong will to overcome difficulties of a girl orphaned from a young age. All of it makes for an extraordinary story.

Women's 100m champion at the Paris 2024 Olympics - Photo: REUTERS

Historical milestones

Saint Lucia has a very modest sporting history. They first competed in the Olympics in 1996. They have never fielded more than six athletes at any Summer Olympics, and they have never won a medal until Julien. On the day Julien made history for Saint Lucia, another small country achieved a similar feat: Dominica with Thea LaFond’s triple jump gold. Dominica is only slightly larger than Saint Lucia, with an area of ​​750 km ² , but has about half the population. Like Saint Lucia, this is their first Olympic medal.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chuyen-co-tich-tu-doan-the-thao-5-vdv-tai-olympic-2024-2024080510195646.htm