Paris 2024: “I feel the responsibility to keep up with the Brownlee success,” says Alex Yee

Southwest London’s Alex Yee made a late run to reach the Tokyo Olympics, clinching his spot by winning his first World Series race in Leeds shortly before the qualifying window closed.

Heading for Paris as a reigning Commonwealth champion with two Olympic medals to his name, the 26-year-old will start as many people’s favourite. But just as he has with everything thrown at him in his career to date, Yee is taking it in his free-flowing stride. We caught up with him at the Team GB kitting out day…

220: You’ve just received your second batch of Olympic kit and welcome to Team GB, how has the experience been?

Alex Yee: Really cool and it makes the Olympics feel that much more real. Last time was a bit more of a whirlwind. I found out I’d qualified five days before it was announced, whereas this time I’ve had six months.

It’s a huge honour and I’ll be lucky if I get another one of these experiences because this sport is so competitive.

220: How is the quality of the kit compared to Tokyo?

AY: I rate it about the same, but hopefully I’ll get to wear it at the closing ceremony this time. I remember watching the whole of the opening and closing ceremony in London as a kid and the dream hasn’t been just about competing but being part of the entire Olympic experience.

220: Do you feel the increased weight of expectation on your shoulders this time?

AY: It’s a weird one because Iast time I still won my last World Series race [Leeds] going into the Olympics so there was still expectation. But I imagine there will be so many people from home making the trip to Paris that to have those cheers – that hand on the back – will give me those extra few percent that will really matter.

220: The World Series race in Cagliari was your third win in a row in Sardinia and looked like it went perfectly. Is that how you saw it?

AY: I’m still not fully happy with where the swim is. I’m being quite greedy with what I want to achieve and what I’m showing in training maybe means that it is possible, so that’s an exciting place to be.

The bike was really positive in testing conditions in the wet and I had to make sure I was safe. Then to be able to deliver another good 10km and have another battle with Hayden [Wilde] was really positive.

220: Do you have mixed emotions over that venue? [Yee also had a high-speed bike crash there in 2017 that left him with broken ribs, vertebrae and a collapsed lung]

AY: Cagliari is a really special place because it’s where I’ve been closest to death and where I’ve been closest to feeling alive. To win for a third time is almost more than sport for me and more so for my parents.

They love it there now because of the experiences they’ve had. It’s turned what could have been a really horrible place to be into a positive place.

220: The hot topic for the race is the swim in the Seine. Do you have any concerns over the water quality or temperature for Paris?

AY: Water temperature has had an impact on my swims in the past and it probably doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess which ones. But it’s something I’ve been mindful of and have been trying to make positive changes towards, and feel like I have.

Cagliari was a 21.1°C swim, probably my worst case scenario [just over the threshold to be non-wetsuit], but was really positive [Yee swam the fastest second lap in the field] .

Water quality is the big taboo subject but I trust the powers that be. We need open-water swim environments and Paris is trying to create one, and that can only be seen as a positive in the grand scheme of things.

We’re hoping to leave a legacy so people will watch us race for Olympic gold medals and will then want to go and jump in the Seine and have a swim!

• Will water temperature affect your triathlon race-day swim?

220: Would you have any concerns if the races reverted to duathlons? [Yee was junior world champion in run-bike-run in 2016]

AY: It wouldn’t faze me but it would be sad for the sport. As a super biased person, I’ve always seen triathlon as one of the blue-riband sports of the Games; one of the first medal opportunities, where we’ve looked to the Brownlees, Helen Jenkins, Vicky Holland or Non Stanford to deliver those results.

I hope we can have that same spectacle and opportunity. It’s such a majestic stage, an incredible venue and could be such a big opportunity for growth in the sport which is super exciting.

220: Were you consulted about the second men’s spot on the team?

AY: No, which I think is the best thing for it. British Triathlon have spent an incredible amount of time on selection policies and have very knowledgeable people who are doing these things and I’ll leave it to the powers that be.

I’m super happy that Dicko [Sam Dickinson] has been selected. He’s someone I was housemates with for 3-4 years and we got each other out of the door every morning.

But it’s a real shame to miss Jonny. He’s created an incredible legacy for the sport. I watched him in 2012 and got to share that gold medal moment with him in 2021 and I feel the responsibility to keep up with the Brownlee success and what they’ve done for the sport.

220: Finally, what time do you think you might have to run for 10km to take gold?

AY: A lot of people have been saying outrageous times like 28:30, and I don’t think they’re probably a million miles off. But my mindset is about being able to run well over 10km rather than it being a certain speed.

Sometimes it doesn’t come so much from increasing run speed, but can be about reducing the cost of a swim or bike and that extra physiological improvement lifts my ceiling more. That’s been the insightful thing. I want to push on my run, but the secret lies somewhere else.

• Who are the fastest runners in triathlon at the Olympics?

220’s prediction for Alex Yee in Paris

Yee’s effervescent demeanour belies the inner steel of what it takes to be the world’s best triathlete. Any doubts that the belief wasn’t quite there yet in Tokyo have dissipated. Conditions can always play a factor, but he rightly starts as the gold medal favourite.