“Some days, my mother struggled to find something for us to eat. But I never gave up. I kept pushing,” Julien Alfred had said in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com. yet, hunger was not the only demon Alfred had to fight. The very surroundings she grew up was a punishment in itself. In the second season of the Netflix docuseries Sprint, Julien goes on to talk about her rather unfortunate childhood.

In episode five of Netflix’s Sprint, Julien Alfred spoke about the “only country named after a woman in the world” and her hometown, St. Lucia. She describes the town as “very small” but built on the roots of resilience. However, it was not a quiet or easy town to grow up in. “I grew up in poverty,” said Julien, talking about her time when she used to run barefoot through fields. While poverty dealt her a tough card on one side, she was dealing with something worse on the other.

As Julien herself puts it, “There would be gunshots throughout the night. It was a very rough community, a rough childhood.” Not just in terms of the country’s historical and political landscape, but also in terms of sports facilities. St Lucia, as Julien remembers, did not have any stadiums or places to truly train! But despite it all, as Julien puts it, “I just thought I could use my talent to get out of the ghetto.” And that is exactly what she did, and that too long before the Olympic success. Take 2018, for example.

At the Youth Summer Olympics in Buenos Ires, Argentina, Alfred won the women’s 100m silver medal. But it seems that her luck wanted her to be resilient, since her triumph came after going through a tragedy. Days before coming to the Youth Olympics, Alfred’s aunt passed away.

“Right before I came to the Youth Olympics my aunt passed away at the hospital, which was tough for me and my family. I’m stronger – I’ve been through things that have broken me down and I’ve got over it. Before I (celebrate at home) I’m going to my aunt’s funeral to dedicate my medal to her,” Alfred had said back then. There was one more reason why the win was so special to her.

Julien had won the silver medal on October 16 and had revealed, “My dad passed away five years ago and he always hoped to see me compete here today. His birthday is on the 17th of October.” Alfred was just 12 when his father passed away and the girl about to enter the teenage was deeply affected by this.

“I actually stopped track & field during that time, just grieving for him,” Julien had recalled previously. But all these have only given her more strength to face the world and look at how she made it through. The buildup to the Paris Olympics itself carried the message that she is ready to take on the best in the world.

Right before the Olympics, she had written history at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships. Julien went on to win gold in the 60m, clocking 6.98 and winning Saint Lucia’s first-ever indoor medal. Then, she also went on to win 100m in 10.85 seconds at the Herculis Diamond League in Monaco and set a Saint Lucian 200m record of 21.86 seconds in London. And then came the greatest moment in St. Lucia’s history.

She gave the first Olympic gold medal to the country that has the highest number of Nobel laureates per capita. In pairs, as she went on to win the gold, clocking 10.72, a national record time, St. Lucia was crossed out from the list of the 70 countries that had never medalled in the Games. Instantly, the tiny Caribbean island nation suddenly came under the limelight like anything. It is of little wonder that the country marked September 27 ‘Julien Alfred Day’. Now Alfred has a wish for her country.

She hoped that her success would drive the improvement of training infrastructure in her country and provide support to the talents something that she sorely missed during her time. She has already done her bit with a foundation that launched after her win at the World Indoor Championships.

“Growing up in poverty, you have some children that struggle with going to school; they are not able to go to school or seeing their companions with things they don’t have, so I think it would be a good idea to give back to the youth, just doing things that I wish I had at a young age, to help them grow in the sport or whatever they want to do,” she had said in April. While her resilience is commendable, that would never have flourished had they not been identified early. And fortunately, Alfred had some guiding angels around her who did that.

The sprinting harbinger that Julien Alfred needed!

Alfred’s physical education teacher, Simeon Stephen, is at Leon Hess Comprehensive Secondary School did not fail to recognize Alfred’s talent. He saw a sprinting fire in her long before the world did. Stephen went on to remind her of the mental aspect that she needed to build. In fact, during a tough period when Julien Alfred couldn’t afford shoes and had to make do with those from her senior, Stephen came to the rescue. Julien was all set to join an athletics club run by a former athlete, Cuthbert Modeste, but did not own a pair of shoes.

Stephen helped her and gave Julien her first pair of proper shoes. His influence doesn’t stop there. He encouraged her to apply for a scholarship at St. Catherine High School in Kingston, Jamaica, where she later trained under former athlete Marlon Jones.  Come 2015, Julien left her hero, Usain Bolt’s home, behind, too!

Recalling the same, she said, “The sacrifice to leave my family at a tender age, the age of 14, to just chase my dreams, it was definitely a tough decision for me.” But two years after leaving, she moved to Texas and began to train under Edrick Floréal. And the rest, as they say, is history.

“He’s been like a dad, a mentor and a coach,” Alfred told Olympics.com about Stephen. “I think at this level sometimes there can be so much pressure and I really appreciate all that he has done, not just from a coaching standpoint, but also just being a human like I am. He’s seen me as a human and not just an athlete,” she further added.

On the other hand, Floreal has also been wowed by how Alfred adjusted from the junior to the senior ranks. “She’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s a difficult adjustment that a lot of kids are not able to do; there’s a lot of people pulling at you.”

Today, Julien Alfred is a global name in the world of sprinting. She has two Olympic medals, a Diamond League Gold, a world indoor championship title, and multiple NCAA titles! So what’s next for Julien? As she sees it, “My motivation is to be the best in the world, to be my best self, the best athlete I can be, and to prove to myself that I belong here. That’s my source of motivation.” Julien Alfred’s story has only just begun; the world will have to watch for more miraculous sprints!