At the Olympics with Alex Yee: “I wouldn't say I was panicking…” (2024)

Alex Yee has had a crazy two weeks. Gold medallist at one of the most talked about races of the Paris Olympics so far, he came out on top of a triathlon that was mired in controversy surrounding the Seine’s water quality and its one-day delay. Both were seemingly forgotten after the drama of the men’s Olympic triathlon race itself, though. And it was all thanks to Yee.

In a bid to upgrade his Tokyo 2020 silver medal to a gold, Yee took on a stacked triathlon race that turned into a two-man battle with New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde. Five minutes off the finish line and gold had seemingly been lost: at 14 seconds behind Wilde, it seemed an impossible amount to make up. Flash forward a few hours, though, and it was Yee who topped the podium, gold medal in hand. It was one of the biggest comebacks of the Games.

“I just thought, ‘I’m going to give this one more try,’” Yee says, in one of the humblest understatements of the year.

To put into context exactly what Yee achieved, we need to break it down a bit. Running a sub-30 minute 10K is a pretty mind-blowing achievement for any runner. Running that after a 40km bike ride and a 1.5km swim is another feat entirely. Swimming, cycling, then running that and then trying to catch someone 14 seconds ahead of you? Almost impossible to comprehend.

Having now achieved both his individual gold — as well as a bronze in the mixed team triathlon relay — Yee gave us an insight into everything that’s gone into his Olympic journey.

GQ: First and foremost, congratulations on your medals! How does it feel now having that behind you?

Alex Yee: It’s pretty surreal. The individual race in particular is something that has been three years in the making. Ever since Tokyo, and even before that. We’ve prepared very specifically for this one race for a long time and then when it comes — and to win the way I did — it was pretty special.

When you fell back to second in your individual race, what was going through your head? Did you know you had it in you to win or were you panicking?

I wouldn’t say I was panicking… For me, I always want to race calm. When I race in control and focus on myself I always race at my best. At the point when Hayden [Wilde] went initially, I just knew that it wasn’t the right time for me to go with him. He was having an incredible race and made it very obvious what he wanted to do from very early on.

I just kind of stuck to what I was doing. With about a lap to go I started to find my legs again and thought “I’m just going to give this one more try and one more shot”. I picked a point on the course and just went for it. And yeah, it turned out ok.

How do you mentally prepare for races like that? Do you have any ways to keep yourself focused?

I ask myself “What’s next?”. I always say it in my head; it’s almost a mantra for me. I try and think positively about the next thing I can do in the race — or even in life — just to stay on the right track. In a race of 55 other people, it’s easy to get distracted by what others are doing and to unravel. When I race my best, everything slows down and I’m able to make decisions and flow better.

Even when I was in second [position] and going through a bad patch, by asking myself that I started to flow again. You can start to feel within yourself that you have a little bit more to give. For me, that race was always about just giving 100 per cent rather than leaving anything on the course.

There was a lot of talk about this triathlon race before it started, particularly because of the Seine's water quality. Did you have to do anything to prepare for the water?

We took some precautions before the race, like Pepto-Bismol, and you take some mouthwash after you’ve been in the water to just clean out everything. There’s an old wives’ tale about drinking co*ke and how it clears out your system as well.

For us, I think the main concern was actually the current. You probably saw it in the race but when we were going around those buoys, everyone was swimming really, really slowly. For me, that’s been a big project over the last two or three years, to experience the current as much as I can. We’ve been going across to Australia with an amazing open-water swim coach who’s found some bodies of water that are very similar to where we raced. To experience those things before they happen is really helpful.

Over the last 18 months I also started working with a British swimming biomechanist to try and make my stroke a bit more hydrodynamic because within the swim current that becomes more critical. A massive part of my race was setting up the race within the swim as it’s probably been known as my weakest discipline.

Where are you going to keep your medals?

Funnily enough, my two medals from Tokyo are still in my bedside table. I feel like I need to do something better with the two that have come now. Particularly the Individual, because that’s really special. Hopefully it will be on display somewhere at some point, but I need a balance between having it on display and not becoming a bit of a shrine or something too bizarre like that.

How are you going to celebrate?

I’ve been able to see family and friends and the guys who came out to Paris. That’s been really special. When I get back to the UK, I’d love to see so many of the people who have helped me along the way. They’re the reason I’m able to be in this position. I’d love to take them all out for dinner and thank them for what they’ve done for me.

We’ve got some more racing to do the following weekend, so it’s a quick turnaround. It’s nonstop but I’m looking forward to it and to giving lots of people hugs.

Tell me a bit about your favourite products for getting you through each discipline.

To start with the swim, there’s been a lot of talk around my core body temperature. I actually get quite cold in the water so my wetsuit sponsor Huub has been amazing and helped me produce these thermal wetsuits and trisuits to support me being able to stay warm in the race. I’ve had many bad races where I’ve gotten cold and never really recovered.

From a bike point of view, I’ve been working on improving my cadence throughout the race so that when I come onto the run it puts me in the best possible place to have had the lowest [energy] cost throughout the bike [stage]. I have a Coros Dura on my bike during the race which means I can monitor how much power I'm using, how hard the race has been and what the cost will be.

For the run, my shoes and my running watch are probably my two staples. Being able to help develop my running shoes with New Balance to optimise everything the best I can, and then to work with Coros — who are one of the best in the business at running watches — has been super special. I’ve always picked sponsors and products based on performance and that’s been no different here.

How do you fuel during the race and in the lead-up to it?

I have a very specific pre-race routine that I’ve practiced over the last 18 months of racing, which involves taking some carbs in on the bike and then a gel during the run and a few other gels during the race. I use a supplement called Bicarb to help with lactate that allows you to essentially push into your red line a little bit longer and harder. It’s been used for years in track cycling and rowing and really short, sharp events, but people are starting to find benefit within endurance events.

The other critical thing is having enough carbs and making sure you eat quite plain foods before the race. I’ll have plain rice with some honey and banana the morning of the race. And then the days before the race, I was having plain white rice with one protein source – chicken or salmon or something like that. It’s just safe food without any risk of discomfort.

Do you have any pre-race superstitions?

I don’t have a lucky swimming cap or anything like that. I just do my warm-up the way I’ve always done it. That’s important to me – it puts me in a good mental space before the race.

What about your sleep? How have you found sleep and recovery at the Olympics?

So we’ve actually been staying in a satellite hotel that Team GB has just outside the village. I’ve seen people sleeping on their cardboard beds and I imagine some people have had challenges with that. We’ve been really lucky that British Triathlon decided to stay outside the village — as they’ve done since 2012 — to help maximise performance and minimise distractions. It’s even been little things like being logistically close to the race compared to getting a bus from the village that have helped.

In terms of actual sleep, the only thing is we had to get up at 4am on the morning of the race to have the right food and stuff beforehand. I started to shift my body clock, going to bed a bit earlier to get used to that so it wasn’t that much of a shock. My girlfriend gave me her teddy bear for the last few weeks so it felt like I had her nearby in a way too.

Is there anyone you’re particularly hoping to meet or bump into still around Paris?

The big one for me would be Eliud Kipchoge. I think he’s one of the greatest runners of our time — or of all time. It would be incredible to meet him. He’s quite a philosophical guy as well, so it would be interesting to listen to him for five minutes and hear what he says.

There has been a lot of talk in South London this week about how you hold the course record at Dulwich Parkrun. Is this something you’ll ever be back to defend?

It would be cool at some point to do a Parkrun again. My granddad who’s 92 does a Parkrun every week. He’s probably got a bit more of a reputation than me, to be honest! So it would be good to do one with him or go back and do Dulwich because I really enjoyed running there. Doing those Parkruns on the weekend were really part of my development to where I am now.

What are your thoughts on how much more popular triathlon is becoming? We’ve just had the T-100 in London and it feels like more people are talking about it.

It’s exciting. People are starting to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of doing varying sports and the lifestyle triathlon has. You see it in particular in cities where the uptake of people going to run clubs and excited about specific events is going up. You’ve also seen apps like Runna growing in popularity. I think that’s super exciting for the nation to be more active and it’s even better that it's in our sport. People become more excited and interested in what you’re doing and as a result are trying it themselves. It’s even getting to the point where some people would say a triathlon or an Ironman is a bucket list thing to do.

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