They say that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that is certainly true for British triathlon superstar Alex Yee.
The 2024 World and Olympic champion is taking time out from the sport in the first half of 2025 to try his luck at the London Marathon on Sunday week (27 April).
It is a far cry from 2017, when he wondered if he would ever race again after waking up in a foreign hospital following a high-speed bike crash.
Yee reflects on scary moment
Alex, who was only 19 at the time and studying for his A-levels, was taking part in an ITU Triathlon World Cup event in Cagliari, Italy.
He suffered broken ribs, vertebrae and a collapsed lung after hitting a bollard and losing consciousness. It was a quite horrific moment.
Alex, speaking in a new video on his official YouTube channel, said: “I woke up in a hospital bed with five broken ribs, four broken vertebrae, a punctured lung and quite a few stitches in my face. It was a scary moment. At the time I felt very fortunate to be alive.
“I had just come out of the swim in the big group and we’d done the first lap on the bike, and unfortunately because we were in a big group and it was a narrow road, I got forced off.
“When the doctors came in, they said: ‘If you’d hit your head, you might nor be here at all.’ It’s one of those moments where you do feel a lot of gratitude.”
Yee was looking back on that pivotal moment in his career as he prepares for that London Marathon bid, and admits he feels lucky he is able to fulfil a lifelong dream.
Back on that day in hospital, all he could think about was how soon he could get back on his feet – but he didn’t realise how long a road he would have to get back to just competing.
The long road back from injury
Yee said: “I was already naively thinking about how I could get back on the bike. The difficulties came post-crash rather than the crash itself, and dealing with that. It was the long-term period away from the sport.
“Nine or ten months of rehab where there’s no definitive answer whether you’re going to be able to come back or not, and whether you’ll be the same person you were before.”
He admits he leaned heavily on his family for support – and that he has been determined to pay them back ever since.
The 27-year-old Londoner, who believes his Marathon bid can make him an even better triathlete, said: “My parents were the two calmest people. For me to see that, allowed me to think rationally and process it.
“I love what I do. I’m living my dream job. To have that almost taken away in 2017 gives me a level of gratitude every time I lace up my running shoes. I want to give back to the people who have invested in me.
“It probably taught me the power of coming back and being a better person, not just a better athlete. To do that made me realise the importance of life and that it can be take away from you at any point.”
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