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Julian Alfred has explained how she has learnt the art of dealing with pressure in big moments which allowed her to deliver Olympic & Diamond League 100m titles this year.
Reigning 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred has opened up on how she has learnt how to deal with pressure since turning fully professional in 2024
Alfred’s final year as a collegiate athlete was at the 2023 NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships where she claimed the 100m and 200m individual titles before being a vital part of her 4x100m relay team that claimed top honours.
The Olympic 200m silver medallist told Citius Mag that saying she is a professional athlete puts pressure on her to be perfect in her races, something that she does not like. Alfred prefers referring to herself as a human being who just loves running, giving room for her to make mistakes and learn from them.
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“I choose not to look at it that way and I think looking at it that way kind of puts pressure on me to go and I feel like I have to go and have these amazing performances but I try to think of myself as just human and just going out there and trying to have fun with the sport and not put pressure on myself,” Alfred said.
The 23-year-old pointed out that she had to work hard to get to the top and enter the chat of top female sprinters in the world. It was not a one-day thing as Alfred puts it. Alfred disclosed that she had to work on her mental strength and always focus on her lane without looking sideways.
Alfred noted that looking at other athletes in different lanes during races causes her to panic and she ends up making mistakes, however, at the Olympic Games and Diamond League Meeting final in Brussels, she made sure to focus on herself and execute the race the best way she knows how to.
“I had to work so hard mentally and my coach worked on my technique a lot and my strength a lot. We had to work tirelessly on trying to focus on my lane and not anybody else cause many times when I do that, I tend to tighten up and panic so I think I worked on me a lot of it really being mental and physical,” she added.
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