Sha’carri Richardson of the United States celebrates after a silver medal finish in the women’s 100-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024 in Saint-Denis, France.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Running on a wet track, just as they did in Paris during the Olympics, it was Sha’Carri Richardson and Julien Alfred side by side at the finish line in the 100-meter final at the Weltklasse Zurich Diamond League track and field meet on Thursday. But this time, it was the former Carter track star crossing the line first with a time of 10.84. Richardson outran the 2024 Olympic gold medalist after another slow start to claim the victory. Richardson improved on her 10.87 time she posted in Paris, while Alfred fell a bit off her gold-worthy 10.72-second run.

Richardson was heavily favored to become the first American woman to win the Olympic 100 since Gail Devers in 1996 because she won the worlds last year in 10.65, the fifth-fastest time ever by a woman, then followed that up with a 10.71 at the Olympic trials, the fastest time this year. She instead took home the silver, with Alfred claiming the first-ever Olympic medal for her island country of St. Lucia.

Alfred was a star on the Texas Longhorns team that won the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in 2023. She finished fifth in the 100m and fourth in the 200m at the world championships that year behind Richardson. She credited her improvement in Paris to a lighter schedule this year that allowed her focus on the Olympics as well as the influence of her coach, Edrick Floreal, the head track and field coach at Texas.