Olympic 100-meter winner Julien Alfred has revealed why she fell to Gabby Thomas in the 200-meter race and how her semifinal victory over Sha’Carri Richardson gave her more confidence for the final.
Julien Alfred revealed that she entered a panicked state and eventually believed she would not advance to the final after seeing the semifinal lineup, which included Sha’Carri Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. The announcement in the call room that Fraser-Pryce would not be competing lessened the strain, as the world champion was still in the running.
The global indoor champion said she was unable to alter her plan since she intended to run all the way to the finish line, but her victory over Sha’Carri Richardson despite slowing down with only 5 meters remaining gave her a boost of confidence going into the final, which she greatly impressed.
The American sprint queen was compelled to accept the second medal after the St Lucien sprint phenomenon crossed the finish line first. In the close race, Melissa Jefferson finished third on the podium.
“I was thinking about how I would execute, so when I saw the line-up, I was like, gosh, I have to race tomorrow. Coach Flo and I focused on visualizing my races leading up to the Olympics, with the main focus being the event itself, regardless of the attendance of individuals. It was strange how quickly the race came to me, and I had to mentally prepare for the semifinal,” Julien Alfred said to Sports Max TV.
Since I was playing against the world champion, I was unable to properly alter my strategy in time for the semifinals. I felt like I had won after the semifinal since I had run such a strong race. I even knew I had won when I slowed down in the final five meters of the race. She continued, “I was as at ease as I could be, and I believe that the outcome of the semifinal was the best thing that could have occurred to me and gave me more confidence.
Julien Alfred said going into the 200m that her bad attitude was a factor in her defeat. She did acknowledge that going from the 100m to the 200m could have been expensive due to exhaustion from running so many rounds in the 100m.
“I believe that my excessive overthinking and weariness caused me…I just wanted to finish the race since it was the last one going into the final. Even after the 100m, I went to bed extremely late, rested for two hours, and had some coffee, so I was really exhausted. After doing some accelerations and barely warming up, my instructor said, “Let’s just go out there for the next round,” according to Alfred.
“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.
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