Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee admits he is “learning the hard way” as he continues his return to the sport after another frustrating weekend ended with a DNF at WTCS Quiberon.
The Briton, who stepped away from triathlon to focus on marathon running before returning to the World Triathlon Championship Series this season, didn’t finish Saturday’s race in France after again getting gapped on the swim and bike.
But speaking to TRI247 this week, Yee insisted his long-term plans remain firmly on track and believes the setbacks will ultimately make him a stronger athlete.
‘I didn’t expect it to be easy’
“Absolutely fine,” he told us when we asked how he was feeling after Quiberon.
“I’m just going through some challenges in the last few races. I expected it coming back to the sport. I think it’s one of the most competitive sports in the world and I didn’t expect it to be easy.
“So yeah, just finding some challenges, finding some stuff out about myself as well, which has been interesting.
“The challenges will hopefully make me learn about myself and grow and get back to it. But all in all, I’m all good and the schedule should keep running as planned.”
Valuable lessons
Yee’s return to triathlon has followed an unconventional path after dedicating much of the past year and half to marathon running, a journey which included an impressive debut over 26.2 miles in London before an astonishing 2:06:38 in Valencia, the second fastest British time ever.
While the transition this year has proved more difficult than he might have hoped, the reigning Olympic champion says that was never entirely unexpected.
He was fifth on his comeback at WTCS Yokohama when he came from miles back at the start of the run but was unable to repeat that feat in both Alghero and Quiberon, pulling the plug on the run in those events.
Rather than judging the season purely on results, Yee believes every race is helping him understand what it will take to compete consistently at the very front of the sport once again.
His immediate focus now switches to an altitude training camp and a Diamond League 5,000 metres on the track in Monaco [which rules out WTCS Hamburg]. He will then compete in a WTCS race in his home city of London for the first time before the Supertri Final in Jersey on 6 September and the build to the WTCS Grand Final.
“My plan is to actually try altitude for the first time, which will be something cool to do,” he explained.
“We’ll hopefully race the Supertri Final in Jersey as well as two World Series races before the Grand Final.
“Unfortunately I can’t finish this series now [the best four results count as well as the Grand Final], but I still want to be part of that competition, still pushing myself and seeing how close I can get back to the guys.
“We always framed this year as a big learning point, to learn what I needed to do and what it’s going to take to be competitive at this level again.
“And I feel like I’m really learning – the hard way unfortunately, but I’m definitely learning fast.”
In the next part of the interview Alex talks in more detail about this year and reveals what he believes will be required to win gold again at LA2028.
