31 July 2025 marks exactly one year since the men’s and women’s individual triathlon events took over the famous streets of Paris for a few glorious hours of high-octane Olympic racing.
Eventual champions Alex Yee and Cassandre Beaugrand were the undisputed heroes on the day, but fellow medallists Hayden Wilde and Leo Bergere, Julie Derron and Beth Potter – let alone the full cast of 110 men and women qualifiers – all played their part alongside the City of Love in a mesmerising spectacle of swim-bike-run drama.
The manner of Beaugrand’s rise and rise in the build up to, and final execution of, that most intense, pressure-filled home Games possible, marked her out as a legend of the sport. Likewise, Yee’s refusal to back down on the run, even after Wilde had carved out what appeared an unassailable 15-second lead at the bell, was a hallmark of greatness, and one delivered on the biggest sporting stage of them all.
You can watch back the Paris 2024 Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Relay races in all their glory over on the Olympic YouTube channel.
Much has happened in the year since for the protagonists of those races. Both Yee and Beaugrand were also crowned 2025 World Champions just a few months later at the Championship Finals Torremolinos, an astonishing double only previously accomplished by Kristian Blummenfelt and Flora Duffy in 2021.
For Yee, that meant the monkey was well and truly off his back after three unsuccessful attempts at closing out the world title on the final day of the season. For Beaugrand, clawing back the win after veering wildly off course on lap one of the swim showed how far the French star had come in terms of both mental and physical strength in the build up to 2024.
Alex Yee then went on a voyage of discovery and a well-documented detour towards the London Marathon. It had been a long-held dream and became one brilliantly realised, finishing an outstanding 14th and with a time of 2:11:08 that leaves the door tantalisingly ajar for a further future foray.
Cassandre Beaugrand became the fastest Frenchwoman ever in a 5km road race with a time of 14:53 in Monaco back in February, chipping 5 seconds off the previous record. The 28-year-old went on to win the Lievin Indoor World Cup and be crowned the E Triathlon World Champion in London as she built into another huge season.
Beaugrand now sets her sights on defending that world title, and a home race at WTCS French Riviera could be the moment that propels her back to the top of the rankings with three races to go. Whether we will see Yee again on the blue carpet in 2025 remains to be seen, but his ambitions towards securing back-to-back Olympic titles at LA 2028 look in absolutely no doubt.
The 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series heads to the French Riviera on 31 August, and you can watch all the action from the fifth stop of the Series on TriathlonLive.tv.