Alex Yee

Alexander Amos Yee (born 18 February 1998) is a British professional triathlete and distance runner. He is the 2024 World and Olympic champion in standard or 'Olympic' distance triathlon, the second man to win both titles in a single year.

He won the gold medal in the Men's Triathlon at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the silver medal in the same event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the gold medal in the Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and the bronze medal in the same event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. With two golds, one silver, and one bronze medal, Yee is the most successful triathlete in Olympic history.

Yee was also the 2022 Commonwealth Games triathlon champion in both the men's and mixed team events. In addition to his overall victory in 2024, he is a double World Championship medalist over the World Triathlon Championship Series, with silver in 2022, and bronze in 2021.

In 2022, Yee won his first individual World Championship, the 2022 World Triathlon Sprint Championships in Montreal in Canada. Yee has also been part of the gold medal-winning relay team in the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships in Nottingham in 2019. He won silver in the same event in Montreal, securing Great Britain its first quota places in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In 2022, he became the inaugural Esport Triathlon World Champion, after finishing second at both the London and the Singapore Arena Games Triathlon event.

As a distance runner, Yee was the 2018 British 10,000m champion, and led Great Britain to the team silver medal in the European 10,000m Cup as both races were combined as part of the Night of 10,000m PBs festival event at Parliament Hill. He represented Great Britain in the subsequent European Athletics Championships. Returning to road racing after his 2024 triathlon double, he ran his first London Marathon in 2025.

Early life and education Yee was born on 18 February 1998, to a Mozambique-born Chinese father, Ron Yee and English mother, Emma Amos Yee. He was raised in Lewisham, London, and attended Stillness Infant School and Stillness Junior School in Brockley. He studied at Kingsdale Foundation School in West Dulwich and then went on to study for a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science at Leeds Beckett University. In July 2025, Yee was awarded an honorary doctorate by his former university for his sporting achievements.

Career

2016–2019

On 4 June 2016 Yee won the ITU World Junior Duathlon Championships in Avilés in northern Spain. As a result, he was shortlisted for the SportsAid "One to Watch" award which he went on to win, receiving his award from Sir Mo Farah at the ceremony in November.

At the ITU Triathlon World Cup race in Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy on 4 June 2017, Yee tangled with another competitor on the bike and crashed into a concrete bollard, suffering broken ribs and vertebrae and a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). On 19 May 2018 Yee set a PB (Personal Best) in the 10,000m of 27:51.94, less than five seconds outside the British under-23 record of 27:47.0 set in 1971 by Dave Bedford. Earlier in the year, Yee set the then second quickest ever Parkrun time, clocking 13:57 at Dulwich.

Yee started his 2018 triathlon season off with a 6th place at the Gran Canaria ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup, following this with an 8th place at the Cagliari ITU World Cup, returning to the site of his accident a year prior. June saw him compete at Antwerp, registering a disappointing 49th place (despite producing the fastest run split), and then in September he competed in the U23 category at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final in Gold Coast, coming home 10th. Later the same month he made it onto the podium for the first and only time in 2018, taking bronze at the ITU World Cup in Weihai in China.

Yee made his debut in the ITU World Triathlon Series at Abu Dhabi with a sprint-distance race on 8 March 2019. After a strong swim and bike he recorded the second-fastest 5 km run of the race to finish second to Mario Mola in a race that saw 9 DNFs. In the build-up to the race, Yee confirmed his view that he was a triathlete first and foremost, despite being a nationally ranked runner, and stated his intentions to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Following this he took on his first ITU World Triathlon Series Standard Distance event at Yokohama in Japan, finishing in 5th overall. Later the same year, he went on to record a Gold in Nottingham in the Mixed Team relay in June in less-than-ideal weather conditions, resulting in the race being altered to a duathlon format (run, bike, run). Georgia Taylor-Brown took the first leg, followed by Ben Dijkstra, Sophie Coldwell in leg 3 and Yee on the anchor leg to seal the victory ahead of Switzerland in Silver and France in Bronze.

Team GB recorded a Silver two months later in the same discipline in Tokyo, with Yee being beaten at the line on the final leg by Dorian Coninx representing France. The line-up was altered from that fielded at Nottingham, with Jess Learmonth, Gordon Benson, Sophie Coldwell and Yee on the final leg. This success followed a disappointing result in July in Hamburg where the team finished 10th overall, with the team comprising Jess Learmonth, Jonny Brownlee, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Yee on the final leg. Learmonth encountered problems on the swim, resulting in Team GB entering T1 in 15th place and unable to make up the deficit on subsequent legs. Individually, Yee finished the season recording a 13th-place finish at the Grand Final in Lausanne in Switzerland, and an overall ITU WTS ranking of 12th, recording 2521 points from 5 races.

2020–2024 On 8 August 2020, in the Podium 5 km at Barrowford, Lancashire, Yee ran 13:26 behind winner Marc Scott in 13:20, the second fastest 5 km time ever by a British athlete. Later in the month, Yee ran a personal best of 7:45.81 over 3000 metres at the Bromley Twilight Meeting. Yee started his 2020 race programme as one of four male GB athletes at the ITU World Cup race at Mooloolaba in Australia, recording the fastest run time of 14:55 but only achieving a 37th-place finish overall due to a mechanical prior to T2.

Yee won the silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, as well as a gold medal in the mixed triathlon, in which he was the competitor to cross the finish line for the team. Yee was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to triathlon.

Yee won the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series. He took victory in the final race of the series, held in Malibu, California, crossing the line just fractions of a second ahead of Belgium's Marten Van Riel. He also took the win at the Super League Triathlon, Jersey race, earlier in the season, finishing ahead of teammate Jonathan Brownlee in the process. Yee also finished second in the SLT Arena Games, Rotterdam 2021.

Yee competed in Super League Triathlon's Arena Games Triathlon Powered by Zwift Esports Triathlon series in 2022. The series will go on to crown the first ever triathlon Esports World Champion. At the first event of the series, held at Munich's Olympiapark, Yee finished in 6th. However, following a rule change at the next event, held at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park London, Yee finished in 2nd, being narrowly beaten by Germany's Justus Nieschlag. At the final event of the series, held at Marina Bay, Singapore, Yee finished in second place behind New Zealand's Hayden Wilde. However, that was enough to see him take the win in the overall series, giving him the title of inaugural Esport Triathlon World Champion. The win came with some controversy, as it was felt that the race should have had a much closer finish, as Yee and Wilde had been running neck-and-neck in the final stages of the sprint, until Wilde was made to serve a 10-second penalty immediately before the finish for unbuckling his helmet strap before his bike had been properly racked in transition, for which "video evidence for the supposed misdemeanor remain(ed) inconclusive".

Yee won a second Commonwealth Games gold in the mixed relay with Sophie Coldwell, Sam Dickinson, and Georgia Taylor-Brown. He started in the first leg of the race to give the second leg a 20-second lead, which the team held on to win the race. Yee competed as a wildcard at the opening event of the 2022 Super League Triathlon championship series in London. He finished the event in 3rd, behind Matthew Hauser and Hayden Wilde.

Yee won the gold medal in the triathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Yee also took home the bronze medal in the team relay, alongside Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sam Dickinson and Beth Potter.

He was one of the Great Britain flag-bearers at the closing ceremony alongside trampoline gymnast Bryony Page.

2025 On 27 April, Yee completed his first competitive marathon, running the London Marathon in 2:11:08. He was the second British runner to finish in the Elite men's race, and placed fourteenth overall and simultaneously winning silver in the 2025 British Athletics Championships marathon.

Yee finished seventh at the Valencia Marathon on 7 December, in a time of 2:06:38 which placed him second on the British all-time list behind only Mo Farah.

ITU World Triathlon Series Competitions Yee's ITU World Triathlon Series race results are:; Date Event Discipline Position Time 04 July 2015 2015 Holten ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup Jr. men's individual 00:57:33 08 August 2015 2015 Tiszaujvaros ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup Jr. men's individual LAP LAP 02 April 2016 2016 Quarteira ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup Jr. men's individual 00:56:39 26 May 2016 2016 Lisbon ETU Triathlon European Championships Mixed Junior Relay n/c 26 May 2016 2016 Lisbon ETU Triathlon European Championships Jr. men's individual 5 00:58:18 04 June 2016 2016 Aviles ITU Duathlon World Championships Jr. men's individual 00:51:40 14 August 2016 2016 GBR Sprint Triathlon National Championships Jr. men's individual 00:56:04 14 August 2016 2016 GBR Sprint Triathlon National Championships Men's individual 6 00:56:04 11 September 2016 2016 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Cozumel Jr. men's individual 5 00:54:24 29 April 2017 2017 Soria ETU Duathlon European Championships Jr. men's individual 00:53:28 04 June 2017 2017 Cagliari ITU Triathlon World Cup Men's individual DNF DNF 18 March 2018 2018 Gran Canaria ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup Men's individual 6 00:56:21 02 June 2018 2018 Cagliari ITU Triathlon World Cup Men's individual 8 00:55:19 17 June 2018 2018 Antwerp ITU Triathlon World Cup Men's individual 49 01:01:34 12 September 2018 2018 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Gold Coast U23 men's individual 10 01:45:41 22 September 2018 2018 Weihai ITU Triathlon World Cup Men's individual 01:53:30 09 February 2019 2019 Discovery Triathlon World Cup Cape Town Men's individual 00:52:04 08 March 2019 2019 Daman World Triathlon Abu Dhabi Men's individual 00:52:03 09 March 2019 2019 Daman World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Abu Dhabi Mixed Relay 7 00:20:20 18 May 2019 2019 ITU World Triathlon Yokohama Men's individual 5 01:43:57 08 June 2019 2019 AJ Bell World Triathlon Leeds Men's individual 15 01:46:16 15 June 2019 2019 Accenture World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Nottingham Mixed Relay 00:19:52 06 July 2019 2019 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon Men's individual 43 00:57:25 07 July 2019 2019 Hamburg ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships Mixed Relay 10 00:19:57 15 August 2019 2019 Tokyo ITU World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Event Men's individual 33 01:54:01 18 August 2019 2019 ITU World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Tokyo Mixed Relay 00:20:46 29 August 2019 2019 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Lausanne Men's individual 13 01:53:26 29 August 2019 2019 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Lausanne Mixed U23-Junior Relay 00:17:38 14 March 2020 2020 Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup Men's individual 37 00:55:13 05 September 2020 2020 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon Men's individual 5 00:49:24 06 September 2020 2020 Hamburg ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships Mixed Relay 00:19:27 15 May 2021 2021 World Triathlon Championship Series Yokohama Men's individual 4 01:43:17 05 June 2021 AJ Bell 2021 World Triathlon Championship Series Leeds Men's individual 01:43:27 26 July 2021 Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Men's individual 01:45:15 26 July 2021 Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Mixed Relay 00:20:28 21 August 2021 2021 World Triathlon Championship Finals Edmonton Men's individual 11 01:44:53 09 April 2022 2022 Arena Games Triathlon Series Munich powered by Zwift Men's individual 6 00:34:48 23 April 2022 2022 Arena Games Triathlon Series London powered by Zwift Men's individual 00:34:12 06 May 2022 2022 Arena Games Triathlon Finals Singapore powered by Zwift Men's individual 00:36:42 14 May 2022 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Yokohama Men's individual 01:43:30 11 June 2022 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Leeds Men's individual DNF DNF 24 June 2022 2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships Montreal Mixed Relay 00:20:29 24 June 2022 2022 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships Montreal Men's individual 00:21:55 29 July 2022 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games Mixed Relay 00:17:27 29 July 2022 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games Men's individual 00:50:34 08 October 2022 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari Men's individual 01:40:19 05 November 2022 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Bermuda Men's individual 5 01:50:04 24 November 2022 2022 World Triathlon Championship Finals Abu Dhabi Men's individual 4 01:44:37 03 March 2023 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series Abu Dhabi Men's individual 00:52:53 27 May 2023 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari Men's individual 01:36:28 15 July 2023 2023 World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships Hamburg Men's individual 00:19:28 17 August 2023 2023 World Triathlon Olympic Games Test Event Paris Men's individual 01:41:02 20 August 2023 2023 World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Paris Mixed Relay 00:17:48 22 September 2023 2023 World Triathlon Championship Finals Pontevedra Men's individual 30 01:45:02 25 May 2024 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari Men's individual 01:39:44 14 June 2024 2024 Europe Triathlon Cup Kitzbuhel Men's individual 00:31:55 30 July 2024 Paris 2024 Olympic Games Mixed Relay 00:20:03 30 July 2024 Paris 2024 Olympic Games Men's individual 01:43:33 27 September 2024 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series Weihai Men's individual 01:48:21 17 October 2024 2024 World Triathlon Championship Finals Torremolinos-Andalucia Men's individual 01:43:50 31 August 2025 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series French Riviera Men's individual 9 00:51:49