Two years after winning Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham, Team England's Alex Yee stormed to Olympic gold at Paris 2024.

Yee rocketed to men's triathlon glory in the French capital, trailing New Zealand's Hayden Wilde by 15 seconds with less than 1km to go before surging forward and overhauling the Kiwi in a sprint to the finish line in one of the most dramatic triathlon finishes of all time.

It was a moment the Team England star could hardly wrap his own head around, having given everything to take the crown.

"I still don't really know what to say to be honest, I'm a bit lost for words and so grateful," he told the BBC post-race.

"At 5k I was going through a real bad patch and at 2.5k I thought I'm going to give myself one last chance and not give up and here we are. I'm still a bit lost for words.


"I was just saying 'anything can happen'. I'm still just that normal guy who works hard at my sport and loves what I'm doing.

"For me, it's amazing that I can be in this position and I just believed it."

An athletics star in his youth, Yee was part of the track cohort representing Team England at the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa. There he showed early signs of promise, taking bronze in the 3000m.

It was that track background and expertise that saw the now 26-year-old rise to triathlon titan status.

In the years that followed Samoa 2015, Yee fully committed to the triad of sports and managed to pick up an individual silver medal and mixed relay gold at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

A year later and Yee was on the podium once more with World Triathlon Sprint Championships gold in Montreal.


His return to the Team England scene that summer saw the Lewisham-born athlete compete in a second sport on the Commonwealth scene, and it was there he made history.

Yee etched his name into Birmingham 2022 folklore by becoming Team England’s first gold medallist of the Games, crossing the line ahead of Wilde and Australia's Matt Hauser to win the individual race.

And just two days later, he was back on the top step for mixed relay gold alongside Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson and Sophie Coldwell.

With individual Olympic gold now under his belt, it's clear to see that Yee has come a long way since that teenager who represented Team England in Samoa all those years ago.