Rio de Janeiro: A lifetime of early starts and hilly bike rides — and a healthy dose of sibling rivalry — paid off on Wednesday as Britain’s Brownlee brothers made history with their gold and silver finish in the Rio Olympics triathlon.
The 1.5-kilometre swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run is one of the Olympics’ most gruelling events and with the one-two, Alistair and Jonny Brownlee established themselves as the sport’s undisputed kings.
At a sun-drenched Copacabana beach Alistair, 28, became the first triathlete to win back-to-back Olympic titles while Jonny, 26, improved on his bronze medal at London 2012.
It was a victory born on the hill country of northern England’s Yorkshire Dales, where the Brownlees have been running and riding since they were children.
“In London, gold and bronze was incredible but it wasn’t gold and silver,” said Alistair. “This time to achieve that, literally you could do no better.”
The one-two victory, after a torrid period of injuries and loss of form, is the culmination of years of hard work, encouragement and one-upmanship which started at a young age.
“If I didn’t have Alistair around, I don’t think I would be here,” Jonny said. “I’ve learned how to train from him.
“There was a time when I was 13, 14 years old and I wasn’t sure if I was going to do this sport any more, and Alistair made it very easy to come back to because obviously you’ve got a running mate, training partner.
“Here is the guy who I used to cycle to school with and he got me out of bed in the morning and said ‘Come on, let’s go and ride to school.
“He was the guy who showed me all my run routes... but as far as training day-to-day goes, it’s all about trust.
“When you’ve got someone who you know has got your best interests at heart as well and you want to train to be the best you possibly can, it’s very, very important.”
Big brother
The Brownlees are close but also competitive, as shown when Jonny states he was winning their pre-Olympics training sessions and Alistair corrects him with: “It was close.”
But Jonny says so far, there’s no jealousy of his older brother — just a keen desire to beat him.
“You’ve got to appreciate and respect athletes, and I realise how good Alistair is. I realised today, especially, that he was very, very good,” said Jonny.
“I gave everything to beat him, I trained as hard as I possibly could. I couldn’t have done anything else. It’s a silver medal at an Olympic Games. If I want to be beaten by any athlete out there, it’s got to be Alistair.
“I’m 26 now and I’ve still hopefully got a few years in me. When I get towards the end of my career and I’m still chasing the gold medal, maybe I’ll start to get a bit more jealous.”
Jonny may get his chance in Tokyo 2020, with Alistair undecided on his future and mulling a stint in Ironman, the extended version of the triathlon.
The question will be how Jonny fares without his big brother at his side, both in training and when it comes to the crunch.
The Brownlees weren’t the only brothers working in tandem in Rio, with Russia’s Igor and Dmitry Polanskiy finishing 31st and 32nd — and also, like the British pair, six seconds apart.
“Sometimes people don’t trust each other in training sessions and try and get one over on each other. But having Alistair here, I do trust him,” Jonny said.
“In the race itself... I knew that Alistair wasn’t trying to sit in, wasn’t trying to save energy. So it’s all about trust really.”
