Rivalries are good for sports. They attract attention. Fans are usually polarised as to which person they favour in the duo. Everyone shows up to see which one will come out on top.
But even more important than seeing which person wins, rivalries elevate the profile and performance within the sport for not just those in the rivalry, but for the sport as a whole. As fans, we get to dissect each rival’s performance in race after race.
What better way to up our own game than to get to know the nuances of success being laid down by two in a rivalry which is setting the standard for others to try to match?
Dave Scott and ‘The Iron War’
Just look at how the rivalry between me and Dave Scott impacted triathlons. Prior to 1989 when we had our epic Iron War battle, Ironman was thought of as a survival contest. Even the top people – half-joking, half-serious – said the winner was the one who slowed down the least.
That completely changed during the 1989 Ironman World Championship. Everyone saw it was an event that could be raced from the sound of the gun right up to the last step that took us across the finish line.
It elevated the sport to a whole new level. Dave did his best Ironman time that day by almost 18 minutes. I did my best by nearly 30 minutes. Third place finisher Greg Welch was over 3 miles behind us when we ended that epic battle.
Yee vs Wilde ticks every box
We are seeing another incredible rivalry emerge in the sport between the new Olympic Gold medalist Alex Yee and the Silver medalist Hayden Wilde. It’s a classic rivalry in the sense that when those two are competing, it’s about as close to a guarantee that one of them will pull off victory.
The groundwork was put in place in Tokyo three years ago when Alex finished runner up to Kristian Blummenfelt and Wilde just behind Yee. Their separation? 8 seconds. This year in Paris, the difference with Yee garnering gold and Wilde silver was even less at 6 seconds.
But more important than those finish times is HOW the two race each other. Yee is generally a bit faster in the water. Wilde makes up the difference on the bike then pushes things to try to soften Yee’s legs for the run. He tried that in Cagliari this year, but couldn’t shake his rival. He tried on the run, but Yee covered the moves and then unleashed a kick which would be a forewarning of what might happen here in Paris.
And as it played out, that’s exactly what took place. Yee surged early in the run trying to break the one single person he was most worried about: Wilde. It didn’t work. Wilde came back then gapped Yee. The margin eventually ballooned to around 15 seconds. It looked like Hayden was going to get sweet redemption for a crash on the way to the start last year at the Test Event which eventually caused him to pull out of the race.
But his rival was not turning over and playing dead. With just a few 100m to go to gold, Wilde’s legs started to fail him right at the moment Yee summoned his superhuman capacity to surge off an already blistering pace. The fulcrum switched in the blink of an eye. Hayden’s seemingly sewn-up gold turned to silver and Yee got what he thought he could get four years ago in Tokyo.
Untouchable levels
A rivalry raises the level of both athletes. It propels them into a nearly untouchable zone. Spurred by each other’s greatness, they separate themselves and turn a race of 55 athletes into a race of 2. They become the aspirational goal of everyone. And neither could do it on their own.
The healthiest rivalries are the ones where the will to win is because of the respect each has for the other rather than the spark being the desire to crush someone you think is a complete jerk.
Yee and Wilde seem to have that respect. The scene at the finish of them together on the ground talking was a window into that. You don’t talk and share the experience with a jerk. You sit and share it with the ones you respect.
And like all rivalries, even with that respect, I am sure both are already thinking and planning how they can prepare just a bit better to make the hunt for the top of the podium even that much more difficult for the other! Stay tuned for what I am sure will be more epic and iconic matchups between Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde.
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