On a rainy and odd evening at the Stade de France, 23-year-old Julien Alfred from St. Lucia showed there’s more than one inspirational story, and more than one great sprinter, at this Olympic track meet
There were small signs for anyone willing to look that the sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson might not quite match the person she has become.
The wobbly starts. The little details. The meek exit from the Olympic trials earlier this summer after such a promising start.
All the hype aside, Richardson was never a sure thing to win an Olympic gold medal Saturday in the 100 meters.
Julien Alfred romped through the puddles and past Richardson and the rest of a largely depleted field, finishing in 10.72 seconds to throw a brick wall in front of what was supposed to be one of the best stories in Paris.
She beat Richardson by .15 seconds — the biggest margin in the Olympic 100 since 2008 — to bring home the first medal of any colour to the small eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Alfred’s victory completed a journey that included her father’s death in 2013 and a move to Jamaica as a teenager, alone, in hopes of training to become a great sprinter.
“He believed I could do it,” Alfred said, crying as she talked about her dad. “He couldn’t get to see me on the biggest stage of my career.”
Richardson was left with silver — a nice colour but certainly not the point of all this after what she’s been through the last three years. Her training partner, Melissa Jefferson, finished third in 10.92 seconds.
Richardson came in as the favourite even though she has hardly been flawless this summer.
Her opening race on the road to Paris included a terrible start at Olympic trials in an event she won with an untied shoelace.
Those starts got marginally better, but after she won the U.S. title in the 100, it was a bit of a shock when she failed to qualify for the 200, thus denying herself a chance at double gold in Paris.
