Running with Alex Yee: The Paris 2024 gold medallist inspired by Crystal Palace

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It turns out that asking an Olympic gold medal-winning triathlete why he supports Crystal Palace while trying to keep pace with him on a five kilometre run is something of a challenge.

Alex Yee happens to be the most decorated triathlete in Olympic history. He boasts a 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold and silver medal from the mixed relay and men’s individual event respectively, and at the 2024 Paris Olympics he added an individual gold and a bronze in the mixed relay.

Last summer, trailing by 14 seconds with 2.5km remaining of the triathlon’s run remaining, the British athlete overhauled New Zealander Hayden Wilde to claim victory. His achievements are exceptional and his garage is full of bikes, including the frame of the one he used in Paris, medals from various competitions, framed kits and running sunglasses.

Racing and Palace have, briefly, come together. Yee’s first ever race, a Croydon 3km fun run at the age of seven or eight, saw him sporting the club’s strip from the 1999-2000 season.

They are the two cornerstones of his life, a love that began at the same time.

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That is the topic of conversation as The Athletic joined Yee on a five-kilometre run before a sit-down conversation in the 26-year-old’s modest terraced house in Loughborough, where he lives with his girlfriend Olivia Mathias, a Commonwealth Games 2022 triathlon mixed relay silver medallist and their dog — a black Labrador named Jet. “He’s a Palace fan,” Yee says. 

He has already completed an ‘easy’ 10km run when he greets The Athletic. Two days earlier, Yee completed a 10km race in Valencia, finishing in 28 minutes and seven seconds. It does not, however, compare to the toil of last summer’s Olympics.

“It was surreal,” he says. “With about 2km to go, I tried to do everything I could to make it happen and it led to a bit of magic.”

Yee had encouragement at that point from two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee, who had found a quiet spot among the crowds. “He leant over the fence and said, ‘Anything can happen, mate’.” Yee’s coach, Adam Elliott, imparted wisdom with a mile to go. “He said, ‘Give yourself one more chance, give it and see what you can do’.

“I owed it to myself to give it one last try and be proud of what I achieved that day. I crossed the finish line absolutely spent, having given everything.

“The biggest thing was making sure I had a structure down to the minute. If I was occupied, I was thinking about the task at hand, not the occasion. It is important to appreciate the occasion but then being able to switch on to that phase of being able to go through what you’re doing as effectively as you can is going to lead you to the best outcome.

“I always use a cue — what’s next? If my mind is wandering, and I’m worrying about something, it allows me to come back to myself. What can I do in the next 10 seconds to two minutes to get to the next point of the race or the finish line?”

He talks through the three different parts of the triathlon. “The swim is about the first 50m, getting out as fast as you can. I spent time working on early speed, making sure I was as hydrodynamic as possible and getting to the first buoy as high as possible because the field splits massively.

“The bike was about seeing if we could get the front group to push on, but we got caught. Then it was about staying safe and navigating the position you’re in.

“The run was about coming into the second transition as high as possible, then pushing to solidify it and hopefully settling into how I was feeling — it wasn’t great but I knew I had to ride out a bad patch over 5km to see if I could give myself one more go on the last lap.

“In a way, I’d prepared for that hard finish so many times I’d almost gone into a flow state where everything had slowed down. I was able to make a really good decision under the highest-pressure scenario I’d ever been in. I was in a lot of pain but able to be clear with myself and know what was going on around me to try to pick the best point in the road.

“I didn’t think too much when I made that decision to go. All of a sudden, I was on his shoulder and mustered as much energy as I could. I knew I had to keep going. With 50m to go, I had that realisation I was going to be Olympic champion and was like, ‘Oh my days, what’s just happened, this is mad’. It’s something I’ll never forget.

“A bit of me wished I could have raced better still. I knew I was a bit better than I was and could have been on the day.”

There are reminders dotted around his house. A small Eiffel Tower model sits on a shelf in his kitchen, given to him by a friend. There is a large picture on the wall showing London landmarks en route to Paris, personalised with pictures of him emerging from the water and on his bike.

Medal winners were given a box containing a special edition of a poster designed for the Games but, in a mix-up, Yee has a silver one and Wilde has a gold one. “We haven’t traded them back yet but we’ve got to, surely,” he says.

A closing-ceremony flag bearer for Team GB, he laughs as he describes the panic of forgetting his shoes, only to find relief when there were spares in the Team GB headquarters. 

There is a framed Pokemon card on one wall, and on the opposite side is a framed cartoon strip from 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Yee’s uncle, Jonathan Amos, was the editor for the film and won a British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for editing 2017 film Baby Driver. There is a mutual respect for each other’s achievements.  

Yee, who is half-Chinese — his dad was born in China but grew up in Mozambique and his mum is British — is from Brockley, Lewisham in south east London. That is part of the reason why he supports the club from whom he has “felt the love” this year, being invited to Selhurst Park to celebrate his achievements.

“I was thinking about this on my run,” he says when asked how he became a fan. “I went to my first Palace game in 2004 when I was six years old — a home game against Sporting Lisbon.

“My two best friends in primary school supported Manchester United and Chelsea. I thought, ‘I can’t do that’. Palace or Millwall were the two obvious local teams. The badge was so cool with the eagle, plus the red and blue stripes. It was iconic. At that point, I was locked in.”

We begin the run at a pace of four minutes 20 seconds per kilometre. That would ordinarily be a comfortable pace for me but already my heart rate is rising and I’m starting to breathe more heavily as I ask how frequently he attends games and whether he has ever held a season ticket.

His answers reveal a genuine support for Palace, rather than the passing interest you might expect. “I’ve still got the receipts,” he says of attending “seven or eight” games in that first season.

“My grandad became a member and I remember watching Andy Johnson head the winner against Liverpool at home. He was on my wall growing up.” 

You might think that winning a gold medal at the Olympics would give leeway to extravagance — a new car, a holiday, something special. For Yee, that would be a season ticket at Selhurst Park.

“I said if I won the Olympics, my one thing I’d treat myself to would be a season ticket,” something he has never held before. “I told my girlfriend, ‘If this happens, I’m gonna do it, pull the trigger’.”

But he is fraught with potential guilt at “taking it away from another fan”, pointing to the waiting list and how he “can’t justify” going to every other game. “I’ve only been able to go to two games this year, nowhere near as much as I’d like to.” For now, it seems he will continue watching on TV whenever he can.

“Left here,” he says. By this point, my breathing is slightly laboured and I’m stringing sentences together with an increasing number of pauses between words. Yee, in contrast, remains completely relaxed, without skipping a beat in his answers.

“I didn’t think about the outcome when I pushed,” he says as we return to the Olympics. “I wanted to know I gave 100 per cent and that would be enough for me, I could put my head on my pillow and go, ‘I did everything I could and I was beaten by someone better’. I didn’t sleep that night.”

He considers his talent a “gift” and repeatedly references a desire to “be the best version of myself”, something he believes he has yet to achieve. “My ‘why’ has always changed throughout my career. When I started, it was because I was enjoying it but it’s probably my social life as well. I socialised by going on a three-hour bike ride with my mates, going to Herne Hill velodrome or Crystal Palace track and doing hard 400 (metre) reps.”

Our route is part of his usual one which he uses as a “top-up”. Admittedly, it’s early on a Tuesday afternoon but we only see a handful of people, occasionally passing on either side of the path. The pace is consistent, still at almost exactly four minutes 20 per kilometre and I’ve settled into it by now, keeping up with him and asking questions without too much strain. We are running not much faster than he ran his first race, which took him around 17 minutes.

There is a picture of Yee from that race in Croydon wearing the Palace kit, shared on social media by his dad, Ron, who was once a duathlon competitor (cycling and running, without the swimming). “The Palace Supporters Trust sponsored the event so I wore my Palace shirt in support,” he explains.

“Maybe I should do more races in a Palace strip. It’s one of my big dreams that New Balance sponsors the team and get the kit (they sponsor Yee). I’ll have to message (Palace chairman) Steve Parish.”

He describes how Palace defender Marc Guehi congratulating him in the car park at Selhurst Park after a 0-0 draw with Manchester United in September was “one of coolest experiences I’ve had post-Olympics”.

A runner comes in the opposite direction and as we pass, Yee congratulates her on a recent 1,500m race. I remark that it’s quiet, but he says it isn’t always. “You go at your holy times, a Tuesday evening on the way to track or Sunday mornings, and there will be a lot of people out.”

Football is of genuine interest as he talks about playing for Hillyfielders FC in Lewisham, the same grassroots club where, among others, Palace striker Eddie Nketiah began, but acknowledges it was never a career he was likely to have the talent to pursue.

Mathias supports Nottingham Forest. “There was a bit of a rivalry last year (with the league position) but I’m not sure you can call it a rivalry this year,” he says — Forest are third and Palace are 12th in the Premier League. “They’re an example of what we could be in another year or two.”

He asks what the latest is with the Palace ownership situation, then explains how he has formed a relationship with Parish. “He’s always been very supportive, he’ll send a direct message every now and then saying, ‘Congratulations’.”

I put it to him that he must have sacrificed things to make it to the point he is at. “I wouldn’t say a sacrifice,” he responds, “but an investment into yourself and what you’re doing. Those investments early on have allowed me to reap the rewards. I’m able to travel the world and do what I love. I feel very lucky.”

He recalls “bunking off school on a Thursday afternoon” to train at Leeds Triathlon Centre in Yorkshire. “Doing that week on week is something I shouldn’t be proud of but it was the way I knew I wanted to get to my goal.”

A crash on his bike during a triathlon in Italy in 2017, aged 19, left him with broken ribs, a broken vertebra, a collapsed lung and a rehabilitation period in which he says his “mind was moving a lot quicker than my body”. Unable to complete his A-Level exams, he was still accepted into Leeds Beckett University — having travelled to the U.S. to consider studying at college there.

“I’ve always said the most unfortunate thing that’s happened to me has been the most fortunate. It’s given me perspective. The hardest I’ve worked was in that rehab period. I went to a lot of dark places.

“It was tough but it led to some of the best feelings after that, something small like winning the Buckinghamshire Cross Country and British 10k Championships the following year. The high I felt from those was probably as high as I felt at the Olympics because of that overcoming and proving to myself I could do those hard things.

“I did my ACT exam. I was actually looking at Harvard at the time which sounds ridiculous because I’d only have been able to go there because of my athletics ability.

“I’d always wanted to be good at triathlon and the best place in the world to train was Yorkshire because that’s where the best guys were coming from. Being surrounded by the best people, you always raise yourself to the level. That was no different.”

His inspiration has come from several places, including Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. “It’s not fair, he’s even got the name. He’s got it all. His aura, the way he carried himself, the way he raced,” Yee says.

He explains how watching Alistair and Jonny Brownlee alongside Javier Gomez in the triathlon “captured my imagination”. But, back on Palace, it was Johnson, poster pinned on his wall, who was the inspiration. Yee has never met his footballing idol.

The former Palace and England striker has been involved in the Palace for Life Foundation, the club’s charity arm, something Yee is keen to follow. “Anything I can do to inspire and tell a story,” he says.

“I grew up where I could utilise opportunities. That support and love was probably what made me the person I am today. I want to do the same for somebody.

“There’s so many talented people you meet who fall by the wayside and you think, “What could they have been? What kind of talent could they be 10 years from now?’ If I can help one person think, ‘What can I do if I invest time in it?’ then that is exciting.

“I’ve thought about doing something called ‘Lewisham to the World’, using a lot of successful people from Lewisham. I can go to a school but Marc Guehi can talk about his experience, (British sprinter) Daryll Neita could go to another school and talk about her experience.

“Someone from a different industry, (rapper) Professor Green maybe, could talk about their experience. People will find their ‘why’, The earlier people find their ‘why’, the more likely they are to succeed.”

I try to emulate his sprint finish from Paris by asking him to push me for the final kilometre of the run. We push the pace to three minutes 30 per kilometre, and by the end I am half a step behind him, unable to get more than a word out at a time. My watch tells me we’ve hit a top pace of three minutes and seven seconds per kilometre. He remains completely relaxed, shoulders back, the perfect running form, breathing easily.

He asks what my 5km personal best is. I get my words out despite the pace — it’s 19:32. “You’ve got a bit more in there,” he says. By way of contrast, his PB is more than six minutes faster at 13:26.

He takes a moment to think when asked what his ambitions for the future are, before his sincere answer arrives. “I just want to keep getting better,” he says. “If I can be better than I was in Paris then hopefully that puts me in a really good place going into L.A. It’s about how can I be better as a triathlete, and as a person”.

Yee’s ability will continue to take him around the world; all he wants now is the chance to follow Crystal Palace around Europe.

(Header design: Eamonn Dalton; photos: Getty Images/Alex Yee)