100m runner Julien Alfred puts her home country St. Lucia on the map of Olympic champions in Paris. The Caribbean island has already put Jason Joseph on the Swiss athletics map.
Jason Joseph from the canton of Basel-Landschaft, which is almost as big as St. Lucia, holds both passports. "I had chicken skin in Paris when she won the 100-meter gold," says the dual national, who was in the World Championship final for Switzerland in the 110 m hurdles a year ago and finished third on the podium at the European Championships in Rome last June. "This success is super nice for our island, now we have a new national holiday!"
There are more than 7,000 Caribbean islands, some of which are only a few square meters in size. The one called St. Lucia is home to almost 200,000 inhabitants. And one of them was Jason Joseph's father, who settled in Switzerland and designed his strength training program and worked as a masseur at the start of Joseph's career.
Athletics as a national sport
Contact with his homeland has not been broken off. And Joseph's father also knows Julien Alfred's family - through sport, as Jason Joseph says. The Swiss record holder and the most famous inhabitant of St. Lucia meet on the tour and know of their shared origins. "We always say goodbye and hello to each other," says Joseph. He himself keeps in touch with the island in the Caribbean. "I usually fly there once a year."
Caribbean athletes have a higher proportion of fast muscle fibers. "Athletics is our national sport," emphasized Joseph, whose surname is even more common in St. Lucia than Müller is in Switzerland. "We are sprinters!" Of course, cricket and football are also watched or played, but athletics is now definitely number one.
Alfred stayed in Europe after winning the Olympics
All hell broke loose in St. Lucia after the Olympic victory. This was probably also the case at the reception for the sporting heroine, who stayed in Europe after the coup in Paris. The athlete cites one advantage of the small island nation, which has existed since 1979. "I didn't have to compete in any trials. I had no pressure, which was good for me." She was not the favorite in Paris, all eyes were on others. Things will be different at her reception.
SDA
