Yee takes a race for the ages to win gold at Paris Olympics

It was 24 hours after it was supposed to run, but it made for an epic day of triathlon racing as the men completed the double-header of racing that saved Paris 2024’s (and World Triathlon’s) butts – the flack the organizations received was tough enough for just delaying the men’s race – it’s hard to imagine what would have happened had they cancelled the day’s racing!

That current
As with the women, pontoon placement, open water swim skills and an ability to push through the stiff current
Alessio Crociani led the men  out of the water, with Henry Schoeman and Matt Hauser close behind. Close behind them were Dorian Coninx and Pierre Le Corre, who joined Alberto Gonzalez for a Nic round group of six who were a bit clear of the chasers.
Defending gold medalist Kristian Blummenfelt was a minute behind the leaders, with Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk about 10 seconds ahead and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde about 14 seconds behind the Norwegian.

Big groups
By the end of the first lap we had a fairly typical men’s race going – the lead group of 19 was just over 30 seconds ahead of the chase group. The lead group contained all three Frenchman (Le Corre and Conninx were joined at the front by Bergere), along with race-favourite Alex Yee (a bit of a surprise) and Belgium’s Marten Van Riel. As expected, the chase group included powerhouse cyclists Blummenfelt and Wilde, along with both Canadians (Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet), Portugal’s Vasco Villa and American Morgan Pearson.
At the end of the second loop of the bike it was surprising to see Yee up at the front trying to work with Belgium’s Marten Van Riel to keep the group away, but it was not to be. By the end of the next lap the chasers had caught up, and we had a big group of 32 were together out in front, with Blummenfelt trying to figure out how he could disrupt things. He had no luck – the group was quite happy to sit on the Tokyo gold medalist’s wheel, cruising through the rest of the bike ride and gearing up for a 10 km road race to decide the medals.

Yee to the front … but not for long
As he had done throughout the race, Yee continued his “stay at the front” strategy, dialling things up a notch by quickly running to the front out of T2 and putting the pressure on the rest of the field. He was followed by Germany’s Jonas Schomburg and Wilde, but there was already a gap starting to form – they were four seconds back, while the first Frenchman through the first 1 km was Leo Bergere, who was 10 seconds behind.
Wilde then surged up to the Brit’s side, setting up the duel we’d expected to see. Then in an unexpected move, Wilde pulled clear of Yee, surging away and hitting the 5 km point with a 13 second lead. Yee wasn’t giving up though, as he suddenly found himself trying tot hold off a charge from Bergere and Le Corre, who were looking to try and give the huge French crowds the thrill of a second medal on the day.
Mislawchuk was in the mix through 5 km, but then couldn’t quite hold on to the Frenchman and started to fade heading into the final lap. It was then clear that the medals were likely to come from the first four on the road. Wilde was starting to show the signs of his incredible effort, as was Yee, and suddenly it was Bergere who was generating the excitement as he surged to try and get to the front.
With 1 km to go Wilde was hanging on to a 10 second lead, with Yee another 10 seconds up on Bergere. Then, out of nowhere, Yee found another gear and surged past the Kiwi, who couldn’t respond to the Brit’s move. Yee would round the corner onto the Port Alexandre III with the race in hand, cruising across the line to take gold in 1:43:33. Wilde would move up a spot on the podium from Tokyo (along with Yee) to take silver in 1:43:39, while Bergere would thrill the French crowd with bronze (1:43:43). Le Corre would take fourth (1:43:51), while Vasco Vilaca rounded out the top five (1:43:56).
