“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.”
If she really wants to escape, she heads for luxury wellness retreat BodyHoliday – an ideal bolthole for an Olympian at the peak of her powers.
She’s also become a tourism ambassador for the destination, and talks passionately about its nature, carnival, culture and heritage. But what she loves most about her home is the people.
“You can have a beautiful island, but it means nothing if the people are not welcoming – and Saint Lucians are so hospitable. It feels like home to everyone.”
She adds: “It means a lot to me, to use my platform to help promote our country.”
