"I finally made it"- Noah Lyles' mother pays a surprise visit to Saint Lucia fulfilling her promise made to Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred

Modified Sep 16, 2024 03:45 GMT

Noah Lyles' mother, Keisha Caine Bishop, kept her promise to Olympic champion Julien Alfred. She paid a surprise visit to Saint Lucia as promised to the 2x Olympic medalist.

Bishop uploaded a video about her visit to Saint Lucia on her Instagram profile. She also carried along the flag of Saint Lucia, as shown in the video, as she said,

".....And I said, 'Hmmm, where is St. Lucia? I wanna go visit!' So Julien [Alfred], I told ya I was coming to your country. I finally made it! I'm at the beach, it's so pretty, and I love your country. Everybody should come visit. That's the good part about track and field."

The promise goes back to 2023, when Julien Alfred won the NCAA Championships in 2023 as a student of the University of Texas. Noah Lyles' mother, Keisha Bishop, was present at the Championships, and she asked Julien Alfred about her country. On learning that Alfred was from Saint Lucia, Bishop promised to visit the Caribbean country soon. A year later, Bishop fulfilled her promise.

Besides creating history at the Paris Olympics, Julien Alfred recently made history when she won the Wanda Diamond League Finals 2024, organized in Brussels. Alfred clocked 10.88 seconds to walk home with the top honors.

Julien Alfred's performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Olympic champion Julien Alfred from Saint Lucia alongside silver medalist Sha'Carri Richardson and bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson of the USA at the Paris Olympics 2024 [Image Source: Getty]

Before she qualified for the Paris Olympics, Julien Alfred's best performance was at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics in 2018, where she won a silver medal in the women's 100m event. Call it a coincidence, but this was St. Lucia's first-ever medal at the Youth Olympics.

By the time the Paris Olympics came up, Julien Alfred was a promising athlete with a gold medal from the World Indoor Championships to her credit, even though it had come in the women's 60m dash. Her personal best was 10.83 seconds, which she had clocked at an athletic meet in Sacramento in 2023.

Julien Alfred clocked 10.95 seconds in the heats and 10.84 seconds in the semifinals of the women's 100m event at the Paris Olympics. While she was considered a strong contender for a podium finish, Alfred was not the first choice for the Olympic champion in women's 100m.

However, on the night of August 3, the sprinter from Saint Lucia proved everyone wrong. Julien Alfred surged ahead at the halfway mark, and even though Sha'Carri Richardson attempted to catch up, it was way too late. Julien Alfred had crossed the finish line with a new national record of 10.72 seconds, winning Saint Lucia's first-ever Olympic medal in style.

Alfred then prepared for the women's 200m, and everyone expected a 'golden double'. However, Gabrielle 'Gabby' Thomas from the USA won the Olympic gold with a timing of 21.83 seconds, the first for the USA after 12 years. Julien Alfred settled for a silver medal with a timing of 22.08 seconds.