Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee gives big T100 hint and looks forward to Kona blockbuster
Alex Yee has given his biggest hint yet that T100 racing could be on the agenda for him at some point in the future.
The Brit has just enjoyed the ultimate short-course season by winning Olympic Games gold and then a first WTCS world title.
It means he’s landed every major prize which matters in the short-course sphere, though the drive to improve year on year remains as he’s pushed to new heights by great rivals like Hayden Wilde.
Plenty of other short-course stars have already excelled at T100 or middle-distance – Marten Van Riel being the latest example – while others such as Yee’s fellow Brit Georgia Taylor-Brown are about to dip their toes in the water four years out from the next Olympics in Los Angeles.
‘A definite conversation to have’
But while a step up definitely isn’t imminent for Yee, he admitted that he enjoyed watching T100 Lake Las Vegas last weekend and will also be tuning in to at least some of the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona this Saturday.
Chatting to TRI247 after landing a hard-fought first world title and asked whether middle distance is on the cards, he told us: “If I’m being honest, I still don’t even have a TT bike so that probably answers the immediate aspect of that!
“But at some point, I think it’s a definite conversation to have. Watching the Las Vegas T100, you’re seeing so many of these short-course guys really pushing through and showing that particularly on harder, hillier courses the smaller short course guys seem to be able to make a difference and be right up there. So I think that’s exciting.
And at some point I’d love to be able to be part of that kind of racing. But I have no idea whether that will be in one year or 10 years.
Alex Yee on the way to the world title in Torremolinos [Photo credit: World Triathlon]
Tuning in for Kona
Yee has always been a huge fan of the sport as a whole – whatever the distance – and the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona is a definite highlight for him.
He told us: “I think Kona is probably one of the most iconic races we have in the calendar, whether that’s the men’s or the women’s edition.
“It’s always been something which I’ve turned on and watched – though probably not the whole thing!
“The sport seems to be evolving. I think that race in Kona two years ago was probably the biggest example of that I’ve seen in recent years [when Norway’s Gustav Iden claimed a record-breaking win, with 2021 Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt in third].
“So to probably be able to see something very similar this weekend will be quite exciting.”
Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt [Photo credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images for IRONMAN]
Iden and especially Blummenfelt have rewritten the record books and shown what’s possible at different distances and they are both back at Kona this week.
Written by
Jonathan Turner
Jonathan Turner is News Director for both TRI247 and RUN247, and is accustomed to big-name interviews, breaking news stories and providing unrivalled coverage for endurance sports.
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