Olympic champ Julien Alfred reveals she nearly quit athletics ahead of Paris 2024
The sprinter, who became Saint Lucia's first Olympic medallist and champion, says she suffered a breakdown in March but rebounded thanks to her coach.
Athletics
Julien Alfred is the Olympic 100m champion – and yet it might never have happened.
The Saint Lucian, who became the first competitor from her country to win an Olympic medal (let alone gold) in any sport when she clinched athletics' blue-riband event at Paris 2024, has revealed she nearly hung up her spikes ahead of the Olympic Games.
It came after Alfred won 60m gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March – a victory that actually ended up weighing heavily on her.
"I wasn't motivated like before," she told the BBC. "It felt so much pressure whenever I got a chance to race, because now I thought that Saint Lucians was expecting so much from me.
"I felt like I had to win every single time. I felt like I couldn't do it."
The thoughts left Alfred in tears. "I had a breakdown," she said. "I told my coach I didn't want to continue my season, I told my agent to cancel my meets."
Everything went downhill mentally for the 23-year-old, who gave thought to retiring from the sport completely. "I didn't want to continue. I was so hard on myself.
"I was overweight, I was struggling mentally and feeling like I couldn't go on. My coach took me off the track for a bit."
It was to be that coach, Edrick Floreal, who helped Alfred gather herself and have time to work on her mental health.
"We had a long conversation and we both cried on the phone. The last thing he said to me was: 'Are you ready to be an Olympic champion?'"
Fighting words that Alfred needed to hear. She arrived in Paris in top form, and left having written her mark in history with two medals, adding 200m silver to her 100m triumph.