Alex Yee overcomes currents, heat and a big deficit to pull of a dramatic comeback.
Alex Yee trailed in the men’s triathlon on Wednesday after swimming through the raging currents of the Seine, and he trailed after cycling in the sauna of Paris, and he trailed late in the run, far behind the leader, Hayden Wilde.
In the glorious, grueling closing stages, Yee not only overcame the gap but sneered at it in his final sprint, striding to an improbable gold medal. Yee, of Britain, covered the final 1.45 kilometers — about nine-tenths of a mile — in 4 minutes 27 seconds, a full 18 seconds faster than Wilde, of New Zealand, who seemed bewildered as Yee approached, moved alongside him and then zoomed away toward glory.
“I have so much respect for Hayden and how much he made me dig there,” Yee said afterward. “He was an amazing athlete and for me, almost two laps in I thought that silver was on the cards but I owed it to myself to give myself one last chance.”
In the women’s triathlon, Cassandre Beaugrand of France surged in the final lap to win gold, six seconds ahead of Julie Derron of Switzerland. Feeling the stress of competing before her home fans, Beaugrand was so nervous, she told reporters, that she vomited before the race. Afterward, she was elated. “I can’t find the words, it’s crazy what’s happening to me,” Beaugrand said. “This morning, I would never have believed it.”
Even though the men’s event had been pushed back a day after water-quality tests had determined that the Seine was unsafe for swimming, the thrilling conclusions on Wednesday reflected the grandiose vision of these Games. A $1.5 billion engineering project stanched the flow of sewage and industrial waste into the river, rendering it if not clean then clean enough for several Olympic events, including a triathlon that neither Yee nor Beaugrand will ever forget.
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