Alex Yee

Alex Yee could have pursued a career as an international runner but instead as the Men’s Olympic Champion and with a supertri League series title to his name already it’s just as well he stuck to triathlon. 

Born in Lewisham, London, Alex has always had a huge natural talent for running right from his school days at Kingsdale Foundation School in Dulwich.  As a junior, he was running quicker 5km races than Mo Farah was at the same age and in 2018 – having recovered from a terrible bike crash – was crowned senior British 10,000m champion with a time of 27:51:94 and represented his country at the European Championships where he finished 14th.

Encouraged by his father Ron to pursue his love of swim-bike-run, Yee developed an incredible all-around game. As a junior, and alongside his running, Alex was already securing medals with a silver at the Junior European Cup in Holten in 2015 and golds at the Duathlon World Championships in 2016 and 2017. His junior career was soaring with a fifth place in the 2016 ITU Grand Final in Cozumel before a horror bike crash at the ITU World Cup event in Cagliari in 2017 threatened to derail his career.

However, Alex fought back. He moved to study Sport and Exercise Science at Leeds Beckett University and join the British Triathlon training squad, including the Brownlee brothers. By 2018 he was well and truly back in the game at elite senior level, taking bronze and the World Cup event in Weihai in China before topping the podium in Cape Town. Alex’s WTS debut in Abu Dhabi in 2019 saw him take a spectacular silver and gold at the Mixed Relay in Nottingham as part of the Great Britain team. In 2021 he proved his versatility at the SLT Arena Games by finishing third in London and second in Rotterdam.

His participation at the Tokyo Olympics was in doubt until just a couple of months before when he produced a stunning victory at WTS Leeds and was handed selection. The faith in him was entirely justified as Alex secured a silver medal in the individual event and gold as part of Great Britain’s Mixed Relay team alongside Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jess Learmonth and Jonny Brownlee.

He then followed that up with the remarkable feat of winning the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series. It started with a disappointing fifth place in his home race in London, but he progressed as the Series went on. He climbed onto the podium for third in Munich before back-to-back wins in Jersey and Malibu to take the crown. The first of those saw a dramatic sprint finish with Jonathan Brownlee, before he repeated the feat up against Marten Van Riel in California.

He produced a stunning double at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to win gold in both the individual and mixed relay events.

At the 2022 Championship Series, Yee raced only his home event in London, where he finished third behind Hayden Wilde and Matthew Hauser. He spent the rest of the season focusing on the World Triathlon Series, where he finished second, behind Leo Bergere. He underlined his incredible form in 2023 with victory at the Paris Olympic Test event where he was streets ahead of the field.

Later in the year Alex returned to the SLT Championship Series where he won his home race in London in the series opener and went onto finish third in the men's overall leaderboard.

In 2023,  Yee entered the Grand Final in Pontevedra as a strong favorite for the WTCS title. He had secured consecutive victories in Abu Dhabi and Cagliari, followed by a third-place finish at WTCS Hamburg. 

Unfortunately, a poor swim put the Brit on the back foot from the start, and he was unable to recover, finishing 30th as Frenchman Dorian Coninx clinched the world title. This result caused him to slip off the overall podium, ending the season ranked WTCS #5.

Alex continued to be a star of the sport in 2024 and at the Paris Olympics produced a race for the ages as he battled back on the run to beat Hayden Wilde in a thrilling encounter.