Alfred overcomes obstacles to be crowned Olympic sprint queen

Getting to the top of the podium was not a smooth passage for the 23-year-old devout Christian, whose victory came in front of 69,000 spectators, just 110,000 less than the population of St Lucia. At the age of 12, her father Julian Hamilton died. Five years later, just before she won Youth Olympic Games 100m silver in Buenos Aires in 2018, her aunt Karen Alfred, who had helped bring her up, passed away. "I'm sure he would have wished for me to get this medal and be here for this moment," Alfred said at the time.