Just over a month on, that astonishing Olympics triathlon victory for Alex Yee remains just as fresh in the memory, an incredible moment where the British star snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
On July 31 in the French capital produced one of THE great sporting moments as he delivered one final mighty effort to overhaul long-time leader Hayden Wilde in the final stages of a gripping race.
Wilde went for home early on the closing 10k run and appeared to have the gold medal in his back pocket as he still held a sizeable advantage heading into the final kilometre. But then Yee conjured up one final magical surge to catch and pass the Kiwi for a momentous win.
It was a stunning finish, and one which had seemed impossible a few short minutes earlier, as Alex went through what he admits was one of the worst ‘bad patches’ of his glittering career.
Yee spoke to supertri (watch the full interview at the foot of this page) about his memories of that amazing day, and opened up about his feelings as things unfolded. Both the struggle he was enduring, and how he managed to get through it and succeed in the most epic of circumstances.
Yee on Olympic struggle
“I always wanted to keep myself within a small part of the race, that gave me a chance,” he revealed.
“As long as there’s a chance, I’m always switched on to what I’m doing. I think just having that chance that there still is an opportunity, there still could be a chance that this could happen, however small it was, was the thing that kept me motivated.
“That middle 5k, I went through, probably one of my worst bad patches maybe of my career to be fair – I was just feeling empty and depleted for one reason or another.”
So how did Yee go from empty and depleted to Olympic champion in the space of just minutes?
How Alex kept his focus
“It’s just process of bringing myself back to what I’m doing and not worrying about what other people are doing. I’ve always said if I stand on the Paris start line and race to the best of my ability, then I can’t be disappointed with the outcome that I have.
“For me that was all I was concerned with doing after Hayden ran away was racing to the best of my ability. At the time that was the best I had. Luckily I was able to rally towards the end, but that all came from internalising and staying present with what I was doing. Thinking what’s next and what’s the best thing that I can do. Just trying to stay as calm as possible in a bit of a mad scenario.”
Alex says there was not a moment where he thought victory would be his until he crossed the finish line. He was still just focused on that one goal – being the best he could be.
The finish line, and reality hits
“I think there was probably not a moment where I thought it was gonna happen until I crossed the finish line and realised. For me, I was just still in a position where I was like ‘if Hayden catches me and he still feels good and he overtakes me, that’s fine’. Because I’m giving 100 percent here and this is 100 percent of what I have.
“Up until kind of 20 metres to go before the line, it was just literally I couldn’t think about anything else apart from giving everything I had, just committed to what I was doing.
“To then crossing the finish line and being like ‘what’s going on, what just happened’ – little bit of disbelief, little bit of shock, and then appreciation for the race we’d just had and for Hayden for pushing me so hard and having that amazing race.”:
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