Alex Yee returns to the World Triathlon Championship Series for the first – and potentially only – time this year on Sunday.
The reigning men’s Olympic champion lines up at WTCS French Riviera but, given he’s not on the start list for the next race in Karlovy Vary, he’s not going to be in a position to try and retain his world title in 2025 whatever happens on the Cote d’Azur.
That’s been a very deliberate policy as a temporary change of focus in 2025 meant he was able to fulfil a long-held ambition of competing in the London Marathon, where he finished a super-impressive 14th in the men’s elite race.
Putting a break in between the last Olympic cycle and the build-up to LA2028 has allowed him to improve what was already his strongest suit – running.
On his journey to becoming Olympic champion in Paris, Yee worked tirelessly on his swimming and biking but this year as well as his 2:11 marathon debut, he has knocked more than 15 seconds off his 5,000 metres track PB with a 13:13.
‘He’s a remarkable athlete’
That top-end speed was in evidence in his one triathlon so far this year when he bossed Supertri Toronto so there should be fireworks when Yee locks horns with great rival Hayden Wilde, who he pipped for Olympic gold in that epic battle in Paris last summer, as well as runaway WTCS leader Matt Hauser on the French Riviera on Sunday.
One man who knows Yee incredibly well is Tim Don, indeed Yee starred for Don’s Brownlee Racing team in that Supertri return last month.
And speaking to TRI247, Don said: “I mean let’s be honest, I wasn’t surprised about Alex winning in Toronto. Everyone was wondering how he was going to to but he’s not going to fly halfway around the world.
“Just look at the aerobic conditioning required to run around 2:10 in the marathon – and he was still biking and swimming.
“He’s a remarkable athlete. You know that 13:13 for the 5,000 metres recently, it was actually quite a tactical race and he finished with something insane like a 2:27 or 2:26 kilometre.
“That’s fast finishing for someone who hasn’t got years of recent experience racing on the track and, you know, is still swimming and biking as well. It’s been a seamless transition for him too, doing all of this in tandem with his longtime coach Adam Elliott.
“It was a pleasure to have him racing in Toronto and it wasn’t just his run. In that last race [it was Eliminator format], he swam really well and was then on the front for the first two laps on the bike. He’s not just hiding and out-sprinting everyone.”
‘Like a kid in a candy shop’
Don is also full of praise for Yee’s enthusiasm and willingness to test himself with new challenges.
He told us: “He’s a generational talent but that’s matched by his thirst for it as well.
“I went to his house the other day to pick some kit up and he’s like a kid in a candy shop. He had just finished his run and he’s telling me this and that and the other. It’s that enthusiasm.
“He loves these challenges and I think it’s brave of him to do the marathon because he could have just done Supertri, WTCS and it would have been back to the Gwen [Jorgensen] era, where she won countless races in a row.
“For both Alex and Cassandre Beaugrand [who won the women’s Olympic gold in her home city of Paris], we all knew they could do that.
“But now they’ve done it, you can see when they turn up to compete, they’re almost untouchable. They are two very special athletes and good luck to them.”
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