Just a day after winning one prestigious UK sporting award, Alex Yee‘s incredible come-from-behind charge for golden glory in the men’s triathlon in Paris has now been voted as Team GB’s ‘Moment of the Games’.
The award was announced at a glittering Team GB ball in central London on Thursday night.
And given Team GB’s astonishing achievements at the Olympics – they won 65 medals in total including 14 golds – it underlines the magnitude of Yee’s feat.
He looked destined for silver at best heading into the closing stages in the French capital, with New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde having powered clear midway through the 10km run.
But Yee somehow summoned remarkable reserves of energy to close the gap to the Kiwi and then powered past for a famous sporting triumph which again put triathlon right in the spotlight on the biggest stage.
At the Games’ closing ceremony he was given the honour of carrying the Team GB flag along with gymnast Bryony Page.
On Wednesday, Yee was named the Sports Journalists’ Association Sportsman of the Year and that plus this latest award, especially as it came after a public vote, must surely put him in the reckoning for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) Award.
The famous five
A short list of five outstanding performances were selected for Team GB’s ‘Moment of the Games’ and the public were then asked to choose their favourite.
The five in question – all of them incredible – and a line or two from the official Team GB release were as follows:
Alex Yee’s golden final kilometre will go down in Olympic triathlon history. Despite the majority of onlookers believing that the Brit was stuck on silver, Yee himself had other plans.
With just a few hundred metres to go, the Tokyo 2020 individual silver medallist kicked on and reeled in Hayden Wilde to take victory on the Pont de Alexandre III by six seconds in a stunning performance.
Keely Hodgkinson
When the final came, Hodgkinson dictated the race and led the pack, but still had Commonwealth champion Mary Moraa on her shoulder coming into the back straight, a concern given the Kenyan’s propensity for a fast finish.
But there was no reason to worry, Hodgkinson had another gear or two and before anyone could try to run her down, she just stepped it up and ran away from the field. After Olympic silver, two World silvers and Commonwealth silver, Hodgkinson chose the perfect moment to strike gold on the biggest stage of all.
Toby Roberts
Sitting third after the bouldering section of this men’s Olympic sport climbing final, the equation was thus for Toby Roberts in his favoured lead section: 77 points to overtake Austria’s Jakob Schubert to go top, 74 for second. By the time he fell from the wall, he had 92.1.
The assumption was that 17-year-old prodigy Sorato Anraku from Japan would score the 86 points he needed for gold, and Roberts would take a well-earned silver but just as he approached the decisive spot on the wall, Anraku lost his grip, let it slip and Roberts clinched a glittering gold.
Tom Pidcock
One of the most entertaining final laps of any race, Tom Pidcock won gold in Paris thanks to perhaps the most daring move of his career. Three years after winning gold in Tokyo, Pidcock pitched up at Elancourt Hill as the favourite to retain his title. And yet when his front wheel punctured at the end of the third lap of eight, suddenly the equation changed.
France’s Victor Koretzky started to build a lead, and Pidcock had to bury himself to keep in the medal hunt and get back into pole position and he seized his chance late on, darting left past a tree as Koretzky went right and sneaking in front of the home favourite for an unexpected and thrilling gold.
Women’s quad
Leaving victory until the last second can make for some of the most memorable moments of a Games, and our women’s quadruple scullers proved just that in Paris.
Undoubtedly the best race of the Paris 2024 regatta, Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw trailed the Netherlands for 1950 metres, possibly even more. But on the very final stroke, they somehow found the strength to move into first and claim a sensational gold.
‘Moment to pause’
After receiving the award, Yee told TeamGB.com: “It is really special to be voted the most iconic moment of the Olympics.
“It makes me feel really proud of the moment and it is special that people thought of that moment as something that inspired them to take that next step in their sporting endeavours.
“I didn’t really take too much time to look back on that one moment specifically, I was so quickly onto the next thing.
“It hasn’t been until now that I have had that moment to pause and appreciate that mad moment that happened!
“It was amazing to have that moment and for people to have loved it so much.”
Potential impact on SPOTY?
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award will no doubt strongly feature the amazing achievements at the Olympics and Paralympics.
A shortlist of six will be announced in December ahead of a public vote on the night of the live broadcast on Tuesday 17 December.
The bookmakers’ strong favourite at this point is Hodgkinson who won the SJA Sportswoman of the Year.
Young darts sensation Luke Littler comes next, followed by road cycling legend Mark Cavendish who won a record 35th stage of the Tour de France this summer in his last year in the sport.
Yee is available at as big as 100/1 in places but those odds will surely tumble after two awards in two days – and now eclipsing fellow SJA award winner Hodgkinson in a public vote.
The closest triathlon has come to winning SPOTY came in 2016 when the newly-retired Alistair Brownlee came second to tennis superstar Andy Murray, both of them having retained their Olympic titles in Rio.
