St. Lucian Olympic champion Julien Alfred is grateful to continue to receive recognition for her historic achievements at the Paris Olympics in August.

On Wednesday, the 23-year-old took home the award of best female athlete of Paris 2024 at the Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC) Awards ceremony held in Cascais, Portugal.

Alfred stormed to a historic 100m gold medal in Paris, the first Olympic medal in St. Lucia’s history.

“It’s truly an amazing feeling getting the love and support. I was not expecting so many praises, tonight especially, but it’s an amazing feeling knowing that my sacrifices and hard work are being celebrated and I’m truly grateful for it,” Alfred said after receiving her award.

She also spoke of her status as a role model for youngsters in St. Lucia and the importance of making them feel like nothing is impossible once you work towards it.

“It’s truly inspiring. Growing up, I looked at Usain Bolt and Levern Spencer, one of my countrywomen, but to be able to be standing here inspiring the youth is something that I’ve always dreamt of and it makes me feel like all my hard work is paying off,” she said.

“Now it’s time to continue to inspire the nation and the youth that no matter where you’re from, you can always work towards your dream,” she added.

Another history maker, Botswana’s 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, took home the award for best male athlete at Paris 2024.

The award for best male team went to Denmark Handball while the best female team went to Italy Volleyball.

The best male team in individual sports award went to Japan Artistic Gymnastics while the female award went to Great Britain Track Cycling.

Austria’s Lukas Mahr and Lara Vadlau took home the award for best mixed team while Chinese six-time Olympic Table Tennis champion Ma Long and New Zealand’s eight-time Olympic gold medallist in canoeing Lisa Carrington took home the male and female outstanding career awards, respectively.