York’s Sam Dickinson won an Olympic medal this morning, along with team mates Alex Yee, Beth Potter and Georgia Taylor-Brown.
Team GB were defending champions for the mixed triathlon relay, which involves each athlete completing a 300m swim, a 7 km cycle and a 1.8km run.
Following Yee and Taylor Brown, Yorkshireman Sam Dickinson maintained a lead throughout the third leg of the relay to give Potter a five-second advantage. Unfortunately, Germany and USA managed to close in for the final stretch.
Potter finished side by side with American Taylor Knibb, just one second behind Germany’s Laura Lindermann. Team GB were originally awarded a silver, yet after a closer inspection of the photo finish, their second place was cleared by officials for third.
So it was bronze for Sam and the team.
Despite the mix up, no complaints were voiced from the team. Alex Yee said: “Of course we’re going to be biased, we’d love the silver medal, but we’re immensely proud of getting that bronze medal. It was an amazing day overall for us.”
“We’re super, super proud of each other,” said Taylor-Brown, who, like Yee, was part of the team in Tokyo. “I think we all put together the best performances we possibly could. Beth definitely emptied herself at the end to get back onto those two.”
This race was 27-year-old Dickinson’s second event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, after he piloted Yee to gold on Wednesday by withdrawing from the delayed Men’s Triathlon. This saw Dickinson quit on the coach’s orders early on in the 10km run, which saved his legs for this morning’s mixed relay.
Whilst they weren’t able to defend their gold this morning, the team will leave Paris with a medal in every triathlon event. Amazing work!