Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Thomas has rarely tasted defeat over the past two years. The fourth-fastest woman ever over 200m, and a five-time Diamond League champion, the one thing she did not have on her curriculum vitae is a global title.
On Tuesday afternoon at the Stade de France in Paris, Thomas finally crossed that off her bucket list, defeating Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred in the final of the women’s 200m in the Olympic Games. But Alfred added her second Olympic medal nonetheless.
The 23-year-old Saint Lucian had made history twice already this year. She ran herself into the record books by winning the women’s 60m at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. She followed that up with a 100m win last Saturday at the Olympic Games, Saint Lucia’s first medal ever at the Olympics.
Alfred’s silver medal came in 22.06 seconds after an electric start, the fastest in the field. Lined up in Lane 7, she led Thomas briefly, but the classy 27-year-old American caught her by the straight, powering through to a winning time of 21.83 for gold.
Alfred, hailing from the community of Ciceron, has had a remarkable year. It’s been a breakout season for her, even after becoming one of the most decorated ever in US collegiate history in 2023. That year, she made the finals in both the 100m and 200m at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
In her fifth consecutive global final, Alfred won her third global medal in succession. She has every reason to hold her head high, as one of the greatest sprinters alive. The hundreds of Saint Lucians who gathered in Ciceron, central Castries, Vieux Fort, Gros Islet, and further afield can be proud of their national hero..
So proud of Miss Alfred’s achievements. She represented Saint Lucia with poise, class and professionalism. Well done daughter of the soil. Congratulations on a successful Olympic campaign. Saint Lucia can now say it has joined the ranks of great sporting nations. I say give the lady a diplomatic passport. Congratulatory honours also goes out to the other Saint Lucian athletes who represented Saint Lucia at the Olympics. Though you did not have featured on the medal podium in your respective disciplines, your participation and representation has given Saint Lucia more visibility. We are extremely thankful and proud of your achievements. Thank you for your service.
Way to go Julien!!! We are so very proud of you. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, sweat, tears and resilience! You are definitely a role model for our youth and an inspiration for our older ones that they can indeed overcome. Well done young lady. You’ve made history over and over again. I must commend you on the way you carry yourself, a lady of class and decorum.
As a man who has St Lucian parents born in England .
I was as proud and happy to see Miss Alfred win our first ever medal and it so happen to be gold and to pick a silver medal as well brings sun shine to my heart .
Well Done St Lucia St Lucia
@C-Wiz your post are truthful and relevant on every level. I agree wholeheartedly.
@ Proud Lucian & Paris well said.
my heart goes out to Julien..I am so proud of her….it only now teaches me as a young person to strive for the best and erase all negativity around me….it teaches me to be humble and motivated in everything i do….Julien is such a beautiful person….I am so proud of her…creating a good legacy is so important…hats off to you Julien!!! you have made us proud…
Congratulations to Julien Alfred on her history making performance at the Olympics. All St. Lucians are immensely proud of her representation. When the dust settles on this momentous occasion we need to do some serious reflection and ask ourselves some serious questions on youth and sport development in St. Lucia.
St. Lucia has a lot of talent and there were many athletes from the various sports (football, cricket, athletics etc.) who came before Julien and did not reach their full potential because they did not have the required support. Sadly, there will be many more after her who will not make it either because they will not have the support. We will not take many lessons from these Olympic medals and very little will change.
Lest we forget, the stadium where Julien competed when she was here is shared with a hospital and is more of a hospital than a sporting facility 15 years after the hospital burned down. So the local athletics association can barely host local events and certainly cannot host regional events. Parents cannot comfortably come to support their children unless they bring their own chairs or sit on the ground. Sad state of affairs, yet, we unashamedly talk about sports development. We have 2 stadiums on the island, both of them located in the south, when the bulk of the population is in the north. Why not one in the north and one in the south? Maybe because it was not politically beneficial?
Local sports coaches are having a tough time. They use their own resources to push their athletes forward. They get little support from the institutions that are supposed to help. These institutions are packed with political operatives with their own agendas and conflicts of interest. There is little interest in sports unless something major happens. Look at the sponsors for carnival and jazz and basically any fete oriented event and try getting these same sponsors for a sporting event-highly unlikely. Even the very ministers who are celebrating and crowing right now are not forthcoming to support aspiring athletes in their communities-but will show up if these athletes have any measure of success. Remember Julien, Michael Joseph and others had to go to Jamaica for the right support and environment that was so lacking in St. Lucia.
We have a ministry of youth development and sports that is obsolete. If this ministry were to disappear, nobody would notice or probably care. They have done little to develop the youth or sport. They continue to dump political operatives who don’t have the knowledge, skills or experiences for the offices they occupy, have no idea of how to develop the youth or sports and have little to show for their tenure. They talk about sport development but at best have 1 or 2 coaches to work with athletes on the entire island in the various sports. I guess they have no resources for that. Do we even have a national sport policy to guide sport development?
The minister of sports himself needs to do some serious reflection on his actions in office thus far. What has he done to develop youth and sports? other than being the most travelled minister and the highest collector of per diems? He talks about sport development and his two points on that are the formation of alumni associations at the secondary schools (good point) and better PE programs at the secondary schools. Really? that’s our grand plan to develop sports on the island? He continues to talk about sporting facilities being used for fetes with little understanding that this works in many parts of the world with a good structure. Isn’t there a facilities sport policy in the ministry to guide these situations? Not even his cabinet colleagues are paying attention to him on this issue. At the same time, he is hobnobbing across the globe with administrators who have retarded sports development for years because of their vindictiveness towards and victimization of athletes, parents and coaches who dare to challenge them; he has essentially joined them in victimizing the aforementioned persons.
I’m trying to be hopeful for sporting development following Julien’s remarkable performance but I’m old enough to know that very little will change. So let’s enjoy this as long as we can.
Yeah yeah we are still just as grateful as it was gold she made us proud she is our Sports Hero along with Sammy…….and to those fools who believes she is not worthy of a piece of land and house remember how you all behave over Sammy yu’ll were in favor of him receiving heaven and earth. Now my girl go and make your money, they have all kinds of track meets in Europe, China, and the US burn rubber DONT BE IN NO HURRY TO COME BACK, but when you decided it’s time to come home the parade will start in VF thru the Heights to Soufriere to Canaries NO THE CARAVAN NOT STOPPING IN MICOUD NORTH AND CHOISEUL back down to new road and go up to them. I also like the fact you said thank you to Jamaica such decency and diplomacy don’t burn no bridges behind you you will never know, the people down there was pumping their fits for you even with their loss. Carry on girl WE LOVE YOU and your public awaits you.