Alex Yee (General Chat) To Run The London Marathon 2025

Is he trying to qualify for European Championships or Commonwealth Games? Both are at home in 2026 but it would be easier to qualify for England than GB. Having said that, the Kenyans and Ethiopians won’t be at the European Champs.

Another Olympic triathlon champion trying to become an average Olympic runner…

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If that’s his true love and passion what’s wrong with that?

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if tri is kajets true passion whats wrong whit his comment lol

at the end of the day part of the question is why does tri have such a high rate of olympic champs that pursue other sports after they win a gold medal.
spirig run european marathon champs
Gwen went running
AB tried to qualify for com games running after 2nd gold
so thats 4 old gold medals that tri kind of loses which means they raise the profile of tri less ( now some might argue it might actually raise the profile of the sport if they do other sports well which I would not disagree with ,but for World Series it is a disaster to keep losing the oly champs and I would assume its part of the silly qualification process in triathlon that is way to long and to many races that burns out athletes. (my 2 cents)

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Because everyone who’s good at it loves the simplicity of putting on your running shoes and going for a training run, track session etc.

And staring into the abyss of the pool for a other swim session or jumping on the bike trainer for another hard workout is much harder mentally and physically than just you, your shoes, and the track.

Like @pk indicated, though he said “lol”, he was spot on: it’s probably good for Alex, it’s bad for me. I don’t think anybody here, in a forum dedicated to one of the most selfish sports invented by man, will take exception with my comment :wink:

There is nothing average in becoming olympic calibre in two different sports, only been done a couple times in history.

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Not that it’s an issue but your going from Olympic best in 1 sport to not even Olympic caliber in another sport (the bar is just stupid high for any sport as you noted, 99,99%of these guys could not do it the other way around either- single sport to multisport athlete). And hey when your at that point in your career, or hell if your GJ and do it mid point of your career more power to you. But to your point it’s been done so rare, that I hope the move to a “less successful” sport fulfills the enjoyment / fresh start these athletes like need/want. Less result oriented and maybe more purposeful enjoyment type of move. But then I hear these athletes try and go after standards (Yee has to improve 2 mins in his marathon to hit what the home country marathon standard?) that they seemingly never hit and I’m kinda like….are they just trading one pressure filled goal for another and to then “fail”?

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First sentence: agree.

“only a couple of times” Nope. I think you’ll be surprised how many athletes manage this. Thinking back decades, biathlon (as in ‘proper’: skis and shooting) and modern pentathlon had several bitd.

And if you want less niche sports - and why would you if your bag is triathlon - then Romero won silver as a rower and then two golds track cycling. So not just “Olympic calibre”, Olympic medallist in two different sports. Wiki suggests she had a go at triathlon in 2011-12.

Having said that, I doubt Yee will go down that road. He is yet young and will have a great shot at repeating his Paris triumph in LA. And don’t neglect Liv in the equation.

the London marathon was a hot day so to improve 2 min especially given it was his first is realistic and he could also run the Olympic b standard over 5 k given that his 5 k race he did was more tactical he has a 13.05 in him.

That’s fair, how many of these star triathletes have actually accomplished their goals in their next sport? What did Spirig do? Funny with her I think she’s more famous for what going back to school and being for law school (?) or medical school in addition to a bad ass olympic medal winning athlete. I know she did some LC races in between itu olympcs for years I think. GJ sorta failed pretty miserable, but again the marathon is pretty much a 1 x shot and that’s it. You can’t turn around and do it next week if you fail, you gotta wait a bit time, so there is also that factor. I also think the marathon is so hard cus if you 0.4% “off”, suddenly that’s the difference in making your goal and not making it. You can be fractionally slower yet it all adds up with that type of distance race.

I know. That’s why I said average Olympic runner. Not average, Olympic runner.

I was only referring to our sport, not “all” sports. But you are right in that a lot of folks have doubled up, some tripled. One from our sport has tripled up even, and that would be the black swan of olympic athletes for sure.

And to some others here, Alex going 2;08 to me is a 50/50 proposition, in which case he might just be in contention for his countries marathon team. Not that he would/could do that simultaneous with the triathlon, but he could make the team and then decline like some of you thought Taylor should have in cycling. Someone give me some small odds and I will bet that he goes 2;08+ in his next outing…

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Sheila Taormina was an Olympic athlete in 3 disciplines. Swimming, Modern Penthalon and Triathlon. She won Olympic gold at swimming, won ITU world cups and I think was world champion.

TBH I am surprised Yee is doing a 2nd marathon. He had a serious over use injury after London. I get he wanted to play and explore post Olympic cycle but it doesn’t make sense now. If he gets a 2:07 it is not going to get him near an important podium.

He has a good chance of Gold in LA and then he can retire or switch to running etc. If he is trying to qualify for a marathon championships in 2026 I cannot see why.

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With a 2:11, he is almost there. Whereas, a 2:41 is not even good enough for women Oly marathon trials.

I thought British Athletics had set the threshold at 2:09 for major championships.