That's incredible considering how much upper body muscle he has to carry for swimming. Those of us who used to make fun of triathletes just went home devastated!
Undoubtedly, and now the greatest endurance athlete on the planet
be amazing when this guy starts trying 70.3/T10 races
Don't think it will be that simple. I don't think he can win against Wilde and Blummenfelt in 70.3 and Ironman right off. In most courses he will lose too much time on the bike
Don't think it will be that simple. I don't think he can win against Wilde and Blummenfelt in 70.3 and Ironman right off. In most courses he will lose too much time on the bike
Youre basing that on what?
Plus Yee is a better swimmer than both of them
I just don't think he has the raw watts in a time trial format. While he may be a better swimmer he can't gap the top guys. He has zero experience in non-drafting triathlon. He's not just going to jump into 70.3 and Ironman and immediately be the best. The current guys are simply too good.
I just don't think he has the raw watts in a time trial format. While he may be a better swimmer he can't gap the top guys. He has zero experience in non-drafting triathlon. He's not just going to jump into 70.3 and Ironman and immediately be the best. The current guys are simply too good.
Granted he might need to do a training block on the bike to sharpen himself to hang with Wilde but they all sit in drafting lines anyway so he just needs to be good enough to hang close enough to him. Other than that the standard of athletes in long course triathlon is awful compared to short course so he would easily outrun the rest by 5 mins+.
I also just cant see Yee moving to long course for a long long time, look at Jonny Brownlee, he has raced elite drafting triathlons into his mid 30s at the very top level. Long course tri just isn't anywhere near as prestigious as the proper elite racing no matter how much Saudi money you throw at it.
I just don't think he has the raw watts in a time trial format. While he may be a better swimmer he can't gap the top guys. He has zero experience in non-drafting triathlon. He's not just going to jump into 70.3 and Ironman and immediately be the best. The current guys are simply too good.
Granted he might need to do a training block on the bike to sharpen himself to hang with Wilde but they all sit in drafting lines anyway so he just needs to be good enough to hang close enough to him. Other than that the standard of athletes in long course triathlon is awful compared to short course so he would easily outrun the rest by 5 mins+.
I also just cant see Yee moving to long course for a long long time, look at Jonny Brownlee, he has raced elite drafting triathlons into his mid 30s at the very top level. Long course tri just isn't anywhere near as prestigious as the proper elite racing no matter how much Saudi money you throw at it.
Apparently he was interviewed after Valencia and he is fully commited and determined to defending his Olympic gold in the triathlon in LA. He didn’t mention if he was going to compete in any more marathons between now and then but you would have to predict that given it is still a full 2.5 years away and given his marathon form he would have to have it in mind. My prediction is he will try to break Mo Farah’s British marathon record up until 2027 with some triathlon races thrown in the mix and then focus all out on a triathlon build up before switching full time to the marathon after.
Yee is not a very good biker as far as Olympic triathletes go. I kind of think Wilde deservd the Paris Oly gold, because the Brits got a bike pacer (basically) for Yee in the form of Sam Dickinson, who promptly quit the race after providing a draft for Yee the whole 40k (more or less). No bike pacer and Wilde probably wins.
Yee is not a very good biker as far as Olympic triathletes go. I kind of think Wilde deservd the Paris Oly gold, because the Brits got a bike pacer (basically) for Yee in the form of Sam Dickinson, who promptly quit the race after providing a draft for Yee the whole 40k (more or less). No bike pacer and Wilde probably wins.
This is nonsense. Dickinson didn't even make the front bike pack that Yee was in, he provided no support at all to Yee in the entire race except from the last 5k of the bike (when the entire field was together and riding easy by that point anyway).
British media hyped him up as a "pilot athlete" which was why he was selected over other British athletes (Milner/Brownlee) who would've been much more competitive, however he completely failed at his only job.
I just don't think he has the raw watts in a time trial format. While he may be a better swimmer he can't gap the top guys. He has zero experience in non-drafting triathlon. He's not just going to jump into 70.3 and Ironman and immediately be the best. The current guys are simply too good.
Granted he might need to do a training block on the bike to sharpen himself to hang with Wilde but they all sit in drafting lines anyway so he just needs to be good enough to hang close enough to him. Other than that the standard of athletes in long course triathlon is awful compared to short course so he would easily outrun the rest by 5 mins+.
I also just cant see Yee moving to long course for a long long time, look at Jonny Brownlee, he has raced elite drafting triathlons into his mid 30s at the very top level. Long course tri just isn't anywhere near as prestigious as the proper elite racing no matter how much Saudi money you throw at it.
they say this about every guy coming from short course
said it about Wilde, said it about Geens
straight bike power isnt the only thing winning mid distance triathlon or Bogen and Magnus D would be walking away with all the hardware
also, you dont need dominant bike power in mid distance Tri when you swim front pack, which he will. Hes not Sam Long and can relax on the bike if he has to and easily run 3:00/km as soon as he gets out of T2
Granted he might need to do a training block on the bike to sharpen himself to hang with Wilde but they all sit in drafting lines anyway so he just needs to be good enough to hang close enough to him. Other than that the standard of athletes in long course triathlon is awful compared to short course so he would easily outrun the rest by 5 mins+.
I also just cant see Yee moving to long course for a long long time, look at Jonny Brownlee, he has raced elite drafting triathlons into his mid 30s at the very top level. Long course tri just isn't anywhere near as prestigious as the proper elite racing no matter how much Saudi money you throw at it.
they say this about every guy coming from short course
said it about Wilde, said it about Geens
straight bike power isnt the only thing winning mid distance triathlon or Bogen and Magnus D would be walking away with all the hardware
also, you dont need dominant bike power in mid distance Tri when you swim front pack, which he will. Hes not Sam Long and can relax on the bike if he has to and easily run 3:00/km as soon as he gets out of T2
For T100 racing, the draft zone is 20 meters. Great swim-runners like Morgan Pearson, who has a better half marathon PR than Yee, have struggled in T100 because they can't hang with the top guys on the bike. I think the same would be true for Yee.
He would do better in 70.3 due to the 12 meter draft zone, but he would still need plenty of power on a watts course. He has expressed a desire to do Kona some day. But it is far from a foregone conclusion that he can beat a guy like Casper Stornes on a course like Kona.
Agree with this and I'll add that it will take him a lot of training, effort, and experience to beat any of the top 3 Norwegian's at a race like Kona. But Yee is such a talent, I do think he would be competitive in short order.
This post was edited 27 seconds after it was posted.
He has not compiled the best career ever for a triathlete, no doubt, but the guy has not only by far the fastest marathon ever for a triathlete, #2 UK all-time, but also two Olympic gold, plus silver and bronze, a World Champs gold, silver, and bronze, a World Sprint Champs gold, silver, and bronze, and a World triathlon (not sure why that is different from World champs in tri) gold. Hayden Wilde sounds better from your description, but his record at major champs is not quite as good as Yee's. Wilde has won silver and bronze at the Olympics, silver and two bronzes at World Champs, gold and silver at World Sprint champs, gold at world tri champs, silver at Commonwealth, and silver at Ironman 70.3 champs.
Alex also ran a 13:13 for 5000m on the track in Belgium this summer.
He has outlined his 2025 training in several multi-part series on YouTube that gives a lot more insights into his approach.
Alex Yee: The London Detour - PART 1
Alex Yee: Vamos - Part 1 - Getting up to Speed - YouTube
Also see the Phil Sesemann series (2:07 marathoner) where he trains with Alex Valencia Marathon training with Emile Cairess and Alex Yee - Doubling Down | Episode 5
they say this about every guy coming from short course
said it about Wilde, said it about Geens
straight bike power isnt the only thing winning mid distance triathlon or Bogen and Magnus D would be walking away with all the hardware
also, you dont need dominant bike power in mid distance Tri when you swim front pack, which he will. Hes not Sam Long and can relax on the bike if he has to and easily run 3:00/km as soon as he gets out of T2
For T100 racing, the draft zone is 20 meters. Great swim-runners like Morgan Pearson, who has a better half marathon PR than Yee, have struggled in T100 because they can't hang with the top guys on the bike. I think the same would be true for Yee.
He would do better in 70.3 due to the 12 meter draft zone, but he would still need plenty of power on a watts course. He has expressed a desire to do Kona some day. But it is far from a foregone conclusion that he can beat a guy like Casper Stornes on a course like Kona.
i think you’re missing the point and failing by your own logic and example: Casper shouldn’t have been able to win in Nice since the bike course was not suited for him, let alone go 1-3 with guys who arent the greatest climbers or have the highest w/kg advantages
its no different in kona: you can have all this down as ‘conceptual’ advantages but that’s not how the races play out otherwise we’d be crowning Ditlev the champion of kona every year and Lange the champion of Nice
Pearson has struggled in every format for a myriad of reasons not really relevant to this conversation about the very best transitioning (yee, wilde, van riel, geens, norwegians). i wouldn’t include pearson in that conversation, sorry