The Year of Yee!
oh, what a year! What a Yee-hah! Excuse the hyperbole, but when describing the last 12 months of Britain’s gold and silver Olympic triathlon medallist Alex Yee, it’s (almost) forgivable. Set against the misery of the pandemic, the tonic of a couple of late nights in July watching the 23-year-old from southeast London stride to silver in the individual event in Tokyo and then anchor the GB relay quartet to gold could hardly have been more welcome. There’s little doubt UK tri fans have been spoiled since London 2012. A combined five medals from the Brownlees and Vicky Holland meant the heat was on in the Far East – and the weight of expectation rested on the slight frame of Yee. Yee delivered by retaining the grace and gratitude that has been the hallmark of his rise to prominence from an upbring in Brockley and early development with Crystal Palace Triathletes, to recovering from a horror bike crash in 2017, and winning the British 10km title the following year. It hasn’t all been about the Olympics in 2021 either. Yee hit the ground running in the World Triathlon Championship Series – his first WTCS win in Leeds in front of a sell-out crowd was a
