Saint Lucia's Olympic hero says the island 'feels like home for everyone'

“Saint Lucia will always be home to me,” Alfred told TTG at WTM on Tuesday (5 November). “It’s always a pleasure going back to the island, to my childhood home in Ciceron, a suburb of Castries, and to remember where I came from.”

Alfred started training at Mindoo Phillip Park, a multi-purpose stadium in Castries, when she was nine years old. She recalls walking to school, swimming in waterfalls, and joining the Friday night Gros Islet street party. She finished high school in Jamaica and then relocated to the University of Texas in the US.

Aged just 23, she made history at the Paris Olympics by winning Saint Lucia’s first Olympic medal, setting a new national record in the process.

When her competitive schedule permits, she returns to Saint Lucia roughly twice a year, but visits nowadays are very different from the idyllic, simple life she enjoyed growing up on the island.

“Wherever I go, I’m recognised – I get stopped everywhere so it takes me longer to get places,” she says. “But so long as I’m by the beach in Saint Lucia, I’m relaxing.”