Athletics – Diamond League – Monaco – Stade Louis II, Monaco – July 12, 2024 Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred reacts after successful the ladies’s 100m
REUTERS/Manon Cruz
There will probably be a complete of 21 Caribbean international locations and territories that may have athletes competing on the 2024 Summer time Olympics in Paris, and whereas they’ve but to hit the medal board within the competitors’s opening days, the silverware ought to start stacking up very quickly.
Listed here are six athletes who hail from the Caribbean to keep watch over because the Olympics progress:
Julien Alfred, St. Lucia, Observe & Subject
The 23-year-old sprinter has been a power in almost each competitors she has taken half in during the last seven years. She received gold within the 100 meters on the Commonwealth Youth Video games (2017), Caribbean Video games (U23, 2022), and Central American and Caribbean Video games final 12 months. She additionally boasts a silver on the 2018 Youth Olympics and on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games.
She took dwelling gold within the 60 meters on the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland earlier this 12 months, posting a time of 6.98 seconds, which equaled the world lead.
She will probably be competing in each the 100m and 200m competitions in Paris.
Devynne Charlton, Bahamas, Observe & Subject
Charlton, 28, is using excessive heading into Paris after setting the 60m hurdles world file on the World Indoor Championships this 12 months. It was the primary time outdoors of junior competitions that the Purdue College alum has taken gold at a significant occasion.
She will probably be competing within the 100m hurdles on the 2024 Summer time Video games, which is an occasion she received silver in again on the 2022 World Indoor Championships.
After successful gold in Glasgow, Charlton mentioned she was in the very best form of her life. That actually bodes properly for her probabilities in Paris.
Thea LaFond, Dominica, Observe & Subject
LaFond is already a record-breaker, turning into the primary Dominican to win gold at a significant competitors by successful the Triple Leap on the 2024 World Indoor Championships. She set a private greatest and new Dominican file with a leap of 15.01 meters.
She has steadily gotten higher with age. The 30-year-old received bronze on the 2018 Commonwealth Video games and silver 4 years later. She then took gold on the 2022 Diamond League in Paris.
The ladies’s triple leap on the Olympics begins on Aug. 2 the place LaFond will probably be one of many favorites.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Worth, Jamaica, Observe & Subject
This would be the final go-around on the Olympic stage for the 37-year-old Fraser-Worth, who seems to be to place the ending touches on an excellent profession that has made her one of the crucial adorned girls’s sprinters ever.
The Jamaican is an eight-time Olympic medalist, which incorporates two golds within the 100 meters (2008, 2012) and a 4×100 gold in 2020. She additionally owns 10 gold medals on the World Championships, a part of a resume that makes her probably the most profitable feminine particular person sprinter in historical past.
Whereas she is likely one of the older athletes on the Video games, she is going to nonetheless be a power to be reckoned with on the particular person 100 meters competitors, which begins on Aug. 2. She will even be part of Group Jamaica within the 4×100 relay.
Kiriani James, Grenada, Observe & Subject
In what will probably be his fourth Olympics, the 31-year-old James will look to achieve the heights he achieved 12 years in the past when he received gold within the males’s 400 meters on the 2012 Summer time Olympics in London. With it, he grew to become the primary and solely Olympic medalist for Grenada.
He received silver 4 years later in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, making him the primary man to earn the complete set of three medals within the centennial historical past of the occasion.
It has been a decade since James received gold at a significant competitors, doing so in 2014 on the Commonwealth Video games. His final medal was a silver, which got here two years in the past on the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The boys’s 400 meters kicks off on Aug. 4.
Steven Gardiner, Bahamas
Competing towards James within the 400m will probably be Gardiner, a 28-year-old Bahamian who received Olympic gold within the competitors on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past. He additionally received gold on the 2019 World Championships together with his time of 43.48 seconds is a Bahamian file and makes him the sixth-fastest man within the historical past of the occasion.
Gardiner additionally owns the world file within the 300m, set in 2022.
