Julien Alfred has opened up about what led to her victory over world champion Sha’Carri Richardson in the 100m and what caused her to lose the 200m to Gabby Thomas at the Paris Olympics.
The reigning Olympic 100m champion explained that her semifinal win over Richardson boosted her confidence ahead of the final, and she shared the reasons behind her 200m defeat.
When Alfred saw the semifinal line-up, which included Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, she admitted feeling panicked and doubting whether she would make it to the final. Even though Fraser-Pryce was announced to be absent from the race, the pressure remained since Richardson, the reigning world champion, was still competing.
Alfred noted that she stuck to her original strategy and pushed all the way to the finish line. Despite slowing down with about 5 meters left, she managed to beat Richardson, giving her a morale boost for the final. She ultimately crossed the finish line first, forcing Richardson to take the silver medal while Melissa Jefferson completed the podium.
“When I saw the line-up, I was like, man I have to run tomorrow because I was thinking about how I would execute. Before the Olympics, coach Flo and I worked on visualization of my races but mainly the Olympic final, it didn’t matter who was there. The race came to me so early and I had to psyche myself up mentally and prepare myself for the semifinal that was crazy,” Alfred told Sports Max TV.
“It didn’t really allow me to change my game plan because I had the world champion so I had to stay woke for the semifinal. After the semifinal, I gained so much confidence and crossed the line after executing such a good race in the semifinal and even slowing down in the last 5m of the race, I knew I had the win. I was as relaxed as possible and I think the way the semifinal turned out was the best thing that happened to me and helped me gain confidence,” she added.
Regarding the 200m, Alfred admitted that her attitude played a role in her loss, but she also pointed to fatigue as a major factor. Running multiple rounds in the 100m left her drained going into the 200m final.
“I think fatigue cost me and I was also overthinking a lot…going into the final and it was the last race so I just wanted to get over with it. I was really tired because even after the 100m, I went to bed very late and had two hours rest and had some coffee. I barely warmed up and did some accelerations and my coach was like let’s just go out there for the next round,” Alfred said.
“When the final came, I did not approach it like I did in the 100m and my mentality towards it is that I will work on it next year and I’m really going to change that. I was overthinking in the final and trying to think of each phase and it was a lot…I should just have run it all out and if Gabby catches me then so be it,” she added.
