Alistair Brownlee


Alistair Edward Brownlee, MBE is a British triathlete. He is the only athlete to hold two Olympic titles in the triathlon event, winning gold medals in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games and the only man to have won Olympic Gold whilst going into the event as favourite for the title. He is also a two-time Triathlon World Champion, a two-time World Team Champion, a four-time European Champion, and the 2014 Commonwealth champion.
His brother, Jonathan Brownlee, is also a decorated triathlete, placing second in the 2016 Olympics, third in the 2012 Olympics, winning the 2012 World Championship and the World Sprint Triathlon Championship in 2010 and 2011, as well as accompanying his brother in their World and Commonwealth mixed team relay victories.
Brownlee was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to triathlon.

Early life and education

Brownlee was educated at Bradford Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in the city of Bradford in Yorkshire. He then started a medicine degree at Girton College, Cambridge, but left after just the first term having decided instead to study Sports Science and Physiology at the University of Leeds, where he gained his degree in 2010. He also completed an MSc in Finance in 2013 at Leeds Metropolitan University.
His father Keith was a runner, while his mother Cathy was a swimmer. He has two younger brothers, Jonathan and Edward. His younger brother Jonathan Brownlee is also a triathlete, winning the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and his youngest brother Edward is also a keen sportsman, but prefers rugby and water polo over the triathlon.
Brownlee was introduced to triathlon at a young age by his uncle, Simon Hearnshaw, who regularly competed in the sport. As a junior, he was a successful fell and cross country runner, coming second in the Junior English Cross Country Championships and winning the Yorkshire County title on several occasions.
He has said that "It was only when I won the World Junior Championships in 2006 that I made the conscious decision to really focus on triathlon". This was when Brownlee left Cambridge to move back to Yorkshire, focus on triathlon and study at the University of Leeds. He described his decision to leave Cambridge to a student newspaper there in 2013, saying "trying to fit 30+ hours of training around my degree was pretty impossible. I decided that triathlon was my true passion, so I moved back to study at Leeds on a less demanding course, and in a city where the sport was well supported at the time by British Triathlon". He was a member of the triathlon club based at Leeds Metropolitan University's Carnegie High Performance centre, and was coached by Carnegie Director of Sport Malcolm Brown, and in swimming by Jack Maitland.

Triathlon career

Brownlee represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the triathlon event, finishing in 12th place and first British competitor. During the 2008 season, his best world cup finish was 3rd place in Madrid and he also won the under-23 world championship.
He won the 2009 ITU Triathlon World Championship, winning all five of the season's ITU World Championship Series events in which he competed. He was victorious in Madrid, Washington D.C, Kitzbühel and London before winning the 2009 season Grand Final, held on Australia's Gold Coast on 12 September and thereby became the first person ever to win the ITU world Triathlon titles for Junior Men, Under 23 Men and Senior Men.
During the 2010 off season, Brownlee sustained a stress fracture of the femur and was not able to return to competition until June, which made defence of his ITU title almost impossible. He did however mark his return to competitive triathlon with a convincing win in Madrid, followed a month later with the European Triathlon Union Championships title. Collapsing with exhaustion at the London race in late July, meant that despite winning the final race of the 2010 ITU Series in Budapest, he lost his overall World Championship title to Javier Gómez.
In the April opening event of the 2011 ITU Championship season in Sydney, Brownlee suffered a heavy fall while in the lead which brought early disappointment and a 29th-place finish. This was contrasted with outstanding success when, in the space of just twenty-one days during June 2011, he convincingly won the next two ITU series events and, following a puncture whilst in the lead and having to make up more than 30 seconds on the new leaders, successfully defended his European title at the 2011 Pontevedra ETU Triathlon European Championships and shared the podium with his brother Jonathan, who took the silver medal. Alistair won the 2011 ITU world title, after winning the Grand Final in Beijing and the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics, while his brother took the bronze medal.
Brownlee won the Commonwealth Games Triathlon in 2014, controlling the race with his brother from the start, before pulling away on the first lap of the run in dominating style; Jonathan took the silver medal. Brownlee also took gold in the mixed triathlon team relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, with brother Jonathan, Vicky Holland and Jodie Stimpson.
At the final race of the 2016 World Triathlon Series in Cozumel, Mexico, his brother Jonathan, who had been leading comfortably as they headed into the final kilometre of the 10 km run, began to show the effects of heat and exhaustion, weaving across the course and appearing to be on the verge of collapse. Alistair abandoned his own chance of winning the race, instead opting to assist his brother over the line, finally pushing him to a second-place finish and coming in third himself. The South African Henri Schoeman, who had won bronze behind the Brownlees in Rio, overtook the Brownlee brothers to win the race.
Brownlee made his long-course debut at the half-iron distance Challenge Mogan-Gran Canaria triathlon in April 2017, which he won in a time of 4:03:09, finishing over eight minutes ahead of the runner-up. He took another win the following month when he triumphed in the North American Ironman 70.3 Championships in St. George, Utah, which secured his place in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in September 2017.

Titles

In the six years from 2005 to 2010, Alistair Brownlee took part in 31 ITU competitions and achieved 24 top ten positions, among which were 13 gold medals, 5 silver medals, and 2 bronze medals.
The following list is based upon the official ITU rankings and the ITU Athlete's Profile Page.
Unless indicated otherwise, the following events are triathlons and refer to the Elite category.
DateCompetitionPlaceRank
23 July 2005 European Championships Alexandroupoli19
24 July 2005 European Championships Alexandroupoli6
10 September 2005 World Championships Gamagori41
23 June 2006 European Championships Autun3
8 July 2006 Junior European CupRijeka1
29 July 2006 Duathlon World Championships Corner Brook2
2 September 2006 World Championships Lausanne1
7 October 2006 Duathlon European ChampionshipsRimini1
19 May 2007 Duathlon World Championships Győr2
16 June 2007 Duathlon European Championships EdinburghDNS
29 June 2007 European Championships Copenhagen1
29 July 2007 BG World CupSalford20
30 August 2007 BG World Championships Hamburg2
7 October 2007 BG World CupRhodes2
30 March 2008 BG World CupMooloolaba43
6 April 2008 BG World CupNew Plymouth49
10 May 2008 European ChampionshipsLisbon15
25 May 2008 BG World CupMadrid3
5 June 2008 BG World Championships Vancouver1
22 June 2008 World CupHy-Vee7
18 August 2008 Olympic GamesBeijing12
31 May 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesMadrid1
21 June 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesWashington DC1
2 July 2009 ETU European ChampionshipsHolten2
11 July 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesKitzbühel1
15 August 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesLondon1
9 September 2009 Dextro Energy World Championship Series, Grand FinalGold Coast1
5 June 2010 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesMadrid1
3 July 2010 ETU European ChampionshipsAthlone1
24 July 2010 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesLondon10
14 August 2010 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesKitzbühel40
8 September 2010 Dextro Energy World Championship Series, Grand FinalBudapest1
9 April 2011 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesSydney29
4 June 2011 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesMadrid1
18 June 2011 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesKitzbühel1
24 June 2011 ETU European ChampionshipsPontevedra1
7 August 2011 Dextro Energy World Championship SeriesLondon1
20 August 2011 Dextro Energy Sprint World ChampionshipsLausanne1
21 August 2012 ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World ChampionshipsLausanne1
10 September 2011 Dextro Energy World Championship Grand FinalBeijing1
24 June 2012 ITU World Triathlon SeriesKitzbühel1
7 August 2012 Olympic GamesLondon1
19 April 2013 ITU World Triathlon SeriesSan Diego1
6 July 2013 ITU World Triathlon SeriesKitzbühel1
20 July 2013 ITU World Triathlon SeriesHamburg2
21 July 2013 ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World ChampionshipsHamburgDNF
24 August 2013 ITU World Triathlon SeriesStockholm1
11 September 2013 ITU World Triathlon Series Grand FinalLondon52
17 May 2014 ITU World Triathlon SeriesYokohama4
31 May 2014 ITU World Triathlon SeriesLondon4
20 June 2014 ETU World Triathlon SeriesKitzbühel1
12 July 2014 ITU World Triathlon SeriesHamburg1
13 July 2014 ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World ChampionshipsHamburg1
24 July 2014 Commonwealth GamesGlasgow1
24 July 2014 Commonwealth Games Mixed RelayGlasgow1
23 August 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series Stockholm2
29 August 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series Grand FinalEdmonton1
25 April 2015 ITU World Triathlon SeriesCape Town1
16 May 2015 ITU World Triathlon SeriesYokohama2
30 May 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series London1
2 August 2015 ITU Olympic Qualification EventRio de Janeiro10
9 April 2016 ITU World Triathlon SeriesGold Coast36
11 June 2016 ITU World Triathlon SeriesLeeds1
2 July 2016 ITU World Triathlon SeriesStockholm1
18 August 2016 Olympic GamesRio de Janeiro1

Key: BG = British Gas ; DNF = Did not finish; DNS = Did not start; U23 = Under 23

French Club Championship Series

In 2010, only the femur fracture could slow Brownlee's dominance for some time. At the opening triathlon in Dunkirk, Alistair was not present, his brother Jonathan won the gold medal. At Beauvais Alistair placed 9th. At the Triathlon de Paris, however, and at Tourangeaux, Brownlee won the gold medals again. At the Grand Final in La Baule, Alistair placed 2nd, Jonathan 3rd, and their rival Javier Gómez Noya won gold.
In 2011, Brownlee took part in the French Club Championship Series Lyonnaise des Eaux representing the club ECS Triathlon, which, thanks to the Brownlee brothers and Javier Gómez Noya, had already won the Club Championship in 2010. At Nice, Dunkirk, and Paris Brownlee was the winner.