Author – Ryan Miller
Ryan Miller is an award-winning Journalist, Broadcaster and Photographer, and OMP’s Head of Content.
Heading into the final kilometer of the Men’s Triathlon, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde looked poised to win gold.
Then as if from the clouds came Brit Alex Yee.
The 15 second gap with 2km to go had evaporated and with the home stretch in sight Yee drew upon some incredible inner strength to power past Wilde and win Gold.
“I was in quite a bad place to be fair,” Yee said afterwards. “I was going through a really bad patch. For me, I rode that wave and just said ‘one more try and let’s see if I can do it’.”
“I didn’t give up.”
The win came from a moment of introspection and a powerful use of positive self-talk.
The mental side of his performance is something that the now 26-year-old has worked on.
Yee has previously spoken of the importance of the mental side of his performance and how he has worked with a psychologist.
In 2022 he told The Mirror that he had adopted a “what’s next” philosophy towards performing, aiming on always improving rather than looking to win.
“I was able to try some different things and come up with some cues which, for me, bring me back to what I’m doing when things can come out of control,” he said.
“I come back to a saying – ‘what’s next?’ Something can go wrong, something can go right but I need to be thinking, ‘whatever’s happened has happened and I can’t do anything about that, whether it’s good or bad’.
“People don’t appreciate how much it (sport psychology) actually has an impact on how you train, your lifestyle and how you race.”
So, what is next for Alex Yee?
No doubt he will savor his precious new medal, but he will need to mentally and physically recuperate as he will also anchor Great Britain’s Mixed Relay team as they look to defend their title on August 5.
