Triathlon-Olympic champion Yee mixing things up to stay fresh for assault on LA 2028

The Star

5 days ago

FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - Triathlon - Men's Individual Victory Ceremony - Alexander III Bridge, Paris, France - July 31, 2024. Gold medallist Alex Yee of Britain celebrates with his medal on the podium. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Alex Yee is already the most successful athlete in Olympic triathlon history and to give himself the best chance of adding to his medals in Los Angeles 2028 the Briton is mixing marathons with high-adrenaline Supertri to keep him fresh in mind and body.
Yee's extraordinary late surge to overcome Hayden Wilde and snatch gold in Paris was one of the great moments of the Games. It came after he took silver in Tokyo alongside a gold in the Mixed Relay, adding bronze in that team event in 2024.
Still only 27, Yee's goal is to match compatriot Alistair Brownlee by successfully defending his title in LA, but, having been putting his body through the relentless training needed for success across three sports since his teens, he has taken a different approach this year.
After adding the 2024 world title to his Olympic haul over the 1,500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run distance, Yee threw himself into his first marathon and duly clocked an impressive two hours, 11.08 minutes to finish 14th at the London Marathon in April.
"It was a very special period and allowed me to take a step back from my triathlon training and look at things a little bit differently to see how I could improve," Yee told Reuters in an interview.
"I think for me to be able to take that small step away but still be working very much within the context of getting better within triathlon was very exciting but it was also the fact I was able to race one of my dream races, which I grew up leaning over the barriers and watching as a fan after racing the mini marathon."
This weekend Yee goes to the other end of the speed spectrum when he races the Toronto leg of Supertri, the fast and furious multi-lap format that features three back-to-back rounds of 300m swim, 4km bike and 1.6km run with eight transitions.
'EXCITING FORMAT'
"It's an exciting format for people to watch, it's developing our sport and evolving it and it's something which I want to be part of," he said.
"With those races everything comes at you so fast that the mistakes are often magnified and as a result you actually have that really short-term opportunity to learn three times rather than it being one big hit and then you move on.
"It might be a very small thing, maybe you miss your buckle on your helmet and then the next thing you know the pack's gone. It's all those little nuances which make up Supertri and make it exciting."
Those "marginal gains" picked up from different formats and building marathon endurance are key to Yee's bid for more gold in LA, when the individual triathlon medals will be won on the first two days of the Games.
"The sport has evolved and I know if I do what I did for Tokyo and what I did for Paris, if I keep doing the same thing, then the sport will leave me behind," he said.
"I need to think about how I can improve and, excitingly, that means that I can work on my run again, which has been something I haven't been able to do for the last five years.
"That stuff has really kept me motivated and kept me excited and I think, fundamentally, if you still have that energy and that excitement towards the sport, then it's a really positive thing."
Yee says keeping his body healthy and his mind fresh are the key ingredients for future success, but a more holistic approach has replaced a traditional multi-year, detailed training plan.
"I would say my roadmap is mainly about the person I want to be in, the mindset I want to be in," he said. "I feel like there is so much more I can deliver and improve on. Then I can stand on that start line and say, 'yeah, I've done everything I can' and I can be proud, no matter the result, of the person I've become on the journey."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)