Alfred wins 100 m
Historic gold coup for small Caribbean island
Historic gold in the women's 100 meters! Julien Alfred from the small Caribbean island of Saint Lucia beat the concentrated phalanx of US stars to win the first ever Olympic medal for the small country of just 180,000 inhabitants in 10.72 seconds.
Rain had disrupted the opening ceremony of the Summer Games, and rain also affected the women's 100-meter final. Only one did not. Julien Alfred flew out of the blocks and outpaced everyone else right from the start. In 10.72 she clearly beat the top favorite Sha'Carri Richardson (10.87).
It is an incredible story for the small island, which measures just 617 km² and has a population of around 180,000, only a fraction of the Olympic city of Paris. Saint Lucia only took part in the Summer Games for the first time in 1996, and the Caribbean state is represented by four athletes in Paris.
Discovered by librarian
Until now, Saint Lucia had never thought of winning a medal. The closest they came was Levern Spencer's sixth place in the high jump in 2016. Until Julien Alfred came along. She came to the attention of the librarian at her secondary school in the capital Castries when she beat the boys in the sprints. After the death of her father, she briefly stopped playing sport at the age of twelve before her coach persuaded her to continue.
From there, Alfred went on to the top addresses for female sprinters. First to Jamaica at the age of 14, and later to the University of Texas, where she graduated with a degree in Youth & Community Studies in 2022. After that, she really took off: Gold at the 2022 Caribbean Games, as well as at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow 2024 in the 60 meters. But even then, there was no telling what triumph she would celebrate in Paris.
There was the first minor drama yesterday before the semi-final. Jamaica's former star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympic champion in 2008 and 2012, ran into a hurdle while warming up on the training pitch and withdrew from the competition.
Rooth is king of the athletes
The second big star of the evening was Norway's Markus Rooth. The 22-year-old sensationally crowned himself king of the athletes, becoming Olympic champion in the decathlon, the youngest since the legendary Briton Daley Thompson in 1980. He was still in seventh place at the halfway point, but had a bomb of a day and gradually worked his way forward. He ultimately triumphed ahead of the German Leo Neugebauer and the Grenadian Lindon Victor.
He threw the discus to 49.80 meters, his performance in the pole vault was particularly outstanding, in which he cleared 5.30 meters. With 66.87 meters in the javelin throw, he finally overtook the German Leo Neugebauer, who had been the leader until then, who had to settle for second place and give up his dream of a first Olympic decathlon victory for his country since 1988.
Crouser again in a class of his own
In the shot put, Ryan Crouser once again proved his special class. The world record holder threw 22.90 meters, 75 centimetres further than compatriot Joe Kovacs and Jamaican Rajindra Campbell, celebrating his third Olympic victory in a row. A feat that no shot putter had ever achieved before. Crouser, who had developed his own technique, had also won the last two world championships.
In the first running final of the evening, the Dutch secured gold in the mixed relay over 4 x 400 meters thanks to the outstanding final runner Femke Bol, who held off the USA in the final meters. In 3:07.43 minutes, the quartet missed the world record by just two hundredths.
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