There’s a case to be made for Alex Yee‘s sensational 2:06:38 marathon in Valencia – the second fastest ever by a Briton – as being the best sporting performance by a triathlete in 2025.
That’s to take nothing away from his arch rival Hayden Wilde’s incredible comeback from potentially career-threatening injuries to T100 dominance.
Or Lucy Charles-Barclay’s own remarkable journey from Kona heartbreak to triumph at the 70.3 World Championships in Marbella.
Not to mention Norway’s brilliant IRONMAN World Champions Solveig Løvseth and Casper Stornes and many others throughout the course of the 2025 campaign.
But Yee is the Olympic triathlon champion and, though he has a track background, he hadn’t run in a road race longer than 10km until this year so the step up to 26.2 miles or 42.2km was a huge leap.
‘Something I’ll cherish forever’
He made his marathon debut in London and clocked an impressive 2:11:08 as he finished 14th but what happened in Valencia was off the scale and Yee himself admits it “transcends anything which I’ve ever felt before”.
That’s quite a statement for a two-time Olympic gold medallist and it’s all captured in a fantastic new film on his YouTube channel which rounds off the ‘Vamos’ series in fitting style.
Beautifully shot and put together by Dan Vernon, Adam Marsden and Marta Gorczynska the video, which is embedded below, follows Yee throughout his Valencia trip, highlighting the meticulous preparation beforehand and then the emotions flowing afterwards.
He talks about the moment he decided to bridge up to a group ahead of him early in the marathon, explaining: “I was excited about the prospect of being in that unknown. I’ve always raced my best when I ‘race’ in triathlon. That was the way I wanted to do it.
“As the kilometres started to tick off I just believed in myself even more. I caught myself smiling and having these little grins because I was just having so much fun and being able to enjoy myself. That’s racing at its purest and me at my best. That was the point where I knew I might be on for something special.
“Of course my legs are screaming at me but that excitement of being on the precipice of something really special kept pushing me on and it’s something I’ll cherish forever.”
‘You realise how much it means’
The joy on his face when he crossed the line is captured in slow motion and afterwards Yee said: “To put so much investment into one race and to have everything come to that moment when you cross the finish line, I think it really transcends anything which I’ve ever felt before.
“My Mum said it’s the first time my Dad’s cried since my sister was born. So very bizarre moments where you realise how much it means to family, how much it means to everyone and that I’m able to inspire people and to excite people in that way.
“And for me, that’s almost as much what it’s about. It’s making Liv [Mathias, his partner] proud, it’s making my family proud, it’s making people around the world proud. Inspiring people to take a chance on themselves and to believe that they can do hard things as well – that makes it all worthwhile.
“In a way, I guess the Olympics had maybe shown potential to do that. But to be able to show that is so special and it’s still hard to put into words.”
And none other than Hayden Wilde, the man he beat to gold in Paris last year in that sensational finish, was keen to pay tribute when we caught up with him at the T100 Grand Final in Qatar last weekend.
He told us: “To now be the second Brit of all time in the marathon is an amazing achievement – and the time itself is an amazing achievement. It sets the standard for triathletes over all three of the sports and it’s really cool for us to see.
“It’d now be super nice for him to come over and test out a T100 next year and see how he goes!”
