Another amazing honour for the amazing Alex Yee – he will be one of Great Britain’s flag bearers at the Olympics closing ceremony at Paris 2024 tonight (Sunday August 11).
The brilliant 26-year-old became men’s individual champion in the French capital some 11 days ago with an astonishing victory which will live long in the memory.
Yee appeared to be beaten and at best hanging on for silver as New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde surged clear on the closing run after an epic race around the streets of Paris.
Yee’s amazing Paris 2024
But, then, seemingly out of nowhere, Yee produced one final surge to catch and pass Wilde as the gallant Kiwi started to feel the impact of the baking lunchtime heat. The pair would then share a very special moment together on the blue carpet, one of the enduring images of sportsmanship this Games has provided.
It was a fabulous moment for Yee and for British triathlon, as he improved on the silver he had claimed behind Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt in Tokyo back in 2021. He had also won Mixed Relay gold in the Japanese capital.
Yee would follow up that Paris gold with a bronze in the Mixed Relay on Monday as Great Britain were pipped by Germany and United States in a thrilling finish. That also made him the most decorated triathlete in Olympic Games history with two golds, a silver and a bronze.
Alex the Great Britain flag bearer
The amazing young talent from London was handed another very special honour today (Sunday), a very deserved one. He, along with gold medal-winning gymnast Bryony Page, will be Britain’s flag bearers at that eagerly-anticipated closing ceremony.
Yee said after hearing the news: “I’m really excited and honoured to be given the opportunity to be one of the Team GB flagbearers. It means a lot to me.
“The Closing Ceremony is a key part of the Olympic experience and having not got to experience it in Tokyo, I wanted to come to it in Paris. So, to be able to go to it, first of all, was really special, but then to get the phone call this morning to be asked to hold the GB flag was really, really special.
“There’s been so many incredible performances over the last two weeks from Team GB, so to be selected as somebody who’s represented Team GB well and made the country proud is really special.”
It’s an occasion which always provides a fitting end to a fortnight of quite unbelievable sporting drama, and carrying the flag is an amazing national honour. This time organisers are promising that the cavernous 80,000-seat Stade de France will be transformed into ‘a gigantic concert hall’.
When is the Olympics closing ceremony?
The whole thing is scheduled to start at 2100 local time today (that is 2000 UK, 1500 Eastern Standard Time or noon PST). And you will of course be able to watch all of the two-and-a-half-hour spectacular on the normal Olympic broadcasters.
So that means the BBC will carry coverage in the UK with NBC having the call in the United States.
