Since developing an early reputation for delivering sub 14-minute 5Ks, Alex Yee has proved he is no slouch in the water or on the bike either. Junior European titles and 5th place in the Cozumel Grand Final in 2016 hadn’t prepared the triathlon world for what was to come.
A serious bike accident in his first World Triathlon Cup in Cagliari may then have set Alex back temporarily, but to make his return to racing on that very same course 12 months later and finish in the top 10 gave a hint of what was to come.
Third place in Weihai at the end of 2018 was his first taste of a World Cup podium but it was in the 2019 season opener, one week before his 21st birthday, that Yee took a first World Cup gold in Cape Town and then a silver medal at the World Triathlon Series race in Abu Dhabi, establishing himself as one of the sport’s hottest young prospects.
That promise was delivered upon in grand style in 2021 as he first won WTCS Leeds to ensure his place on the Tokyo 2020 start line and then produced a brilliant Olympic race to take silver on the biggest stage of them all, before anchoring the GB Mixed Relay team to a stunning Olympic gold. Alex went on to finish 2021 third overall in the World Triathlon Championship Series.
In 2022, after winning the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham he would go one place better. This time it was to be overall silver after a superb campaign saw wins in WTCS Yokohama, Montreal and Cagliari, before his fourth-place finish at the Championship Finals Abu Dhabi saw him pipped to the world title in a dramatic season finale.
Again going in to the 2023 Finals as a favourite only to be denied right at the death, it was at Paris 2024 that a date with Olympic Games destiny was realised, as he hauled in a seemingly impossible deficit over the final 300m to win the Paris 2024 gold medal. Bronze in the Mixed Relay followed, marking the Brit out as the most decorated Olympic triathlete of all time.
Yee would then go on to secure his first World title at the Torremolinos Championship Finals, a race in which the bronze medal was sufficient to see him take the crown after a memorable season of racing that established the Brit as a true great of the sport.
