Alex Yee has admitted that adjusting to becoming Olympic champion and racing at the highest level has been tough since his Paris 2024 heroics.
The Londoner achieved a lifetime’s ambition when winning gold in the French capital after an epic duel with arch rival Hayden Wilde. And just a few weeks later he came out and again got the better of Wilde in the opening supertri race in Boston.
But he’s struggled in the two races since then, finishing down the field in Chicago and then again in front of a huge home crowd in London.
Enjoying the simple things
Wilde won both those events but Yee was very much the centre of attention at Canary Wharf and he spoke to supertri’s Adam Leitch afterwards.
Asked whether a bit of downtime – it’s four weeks until the next race in Toulouse – would be welcome, Yee replied: “I’m mentally tired. I can’t lie. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, but, yeah, I’m just trying to give back to everyone and then also try and race my best and it’s been tough.
“I’m just going to do my best to just keep enjoying the sport, keep showing up every day, enjoy training, enjoy the simple things.
“Even little things like watching my girlfriend Liv race today [Olivia Mathias brilliantly animated the women’s race] are rewarding.”
How the race panned out
Yee had been to the fore for the first of three back-to-back triathlons in London, but lost touch after that point.
However he took time to high-five and thank as many of the fans as possible on his final run and added: “Today was never about me racing. It was about me coming and appreciating everyone that came out here – racing well would have been a bonus.
“In the first triathlon, I felt good, and then the second run lap, I just started to have some heart irregularities, I think. And then I just struggled a little bit. But that’s racing. And kudos to the guys [up front], they raced amazingly well. For us to be able to put on a show – well mainly those guys at the front – was exciting.
“And if I could play a small part of that in the first race, then I’m grateful.”
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