From left to right, Paris Olympics Gold Medalists Julien Alfred and Thea LaFond-Gadson.
Joy and jubilation reverberated across the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States on Saturday, as three nations in the sub-regional grouping enjoyed podium-place finishes in the day’s Olympic events.
Kweyol cousins St. Lucia and Dominica, bonded by a shared Creole culture and bilingual heritage, welcomed their first-ever Olympic medals - gold ones at that.
Thea LaFond-Gadson, who in 2018 became the first Dominican athlete to bring home a Commonwealth Games medal with a bronze in the triple jump, is now the first Dominican with an Olympic medal. This year, at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, her distance of 15.02 in the triple jump finals landed her in first place, and also set a new national record.
Meanwhile Julien Alfred, who has been thrilling Saint Lucians with her excellent 2024 track and field season, secured the country’s first Olympic medal by running 10.72 seconds in the women’s 100m finals, earning a place at the top of the podium and forcing USA’s Sha’carri Richardson to settle for silver. Moments before Ms. Alfred’s semi-final heat, fellow competitor Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce from Jamaica pulled out of the competition due to a hamstring injury suffered during warmups.
Grenada’s Linden Victor ran his final decathlon event – the 1500m race – in a time of 4:43:53, securing enough points to end up in third place overall. The 31-year old, who was this year appointed an Officer in the Order of the British Empire for his service to sports, also won bronze in last year’s World Championships decathlon event, and gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham. This is Grenada’s fourth Olympic medal overall, with the previous three earned by 400m specialist Kirani James.
