Alistair Brownlee

Alistair Brownlee
MBE

Brownlee at Our Greatest Team Parade in 2012
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Al
Born	(1988-04-23) 23 April 1988[1] Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England
Residence	Bramhope, West Yorkshire, England[1]
Education	Bradford Grammar School, University of Leeds & Leeds Metropolitan University
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)[2]
Weight	70 kg (154 lb)[2]
Sport
Country	England \ Great Britain
Club	Bingley Harriers[3] Leeds Metropolitan University
Team	Corus
Coached by	Malcolm Brown Jack Maitland[4]
Medal record Representing  Great Britain Men's Triathlon Olympic Games 2012 London Triathlon 2016 Rio de Janeiro Triathlon ITU Triathlon World Championships 2009 Gold Coast Elite 2011 Lausanne Team 2011 Beijing Elite 2014 Hamburg Team 2011 Lausanne Sprint European Triathlon Championships 2010 Athlone Elite 2011 Pontevedra Elite 2014 Kitzbuhel Elite 2009 Holten Elite ITU Triathlon Junior World Championships 2006 Lausanne Junior 2008 Vancouver U23 2007 Hamburg Junior European Junior Triathlon Championships 2006 Autun Junior 2007 Copenhagen Junior Men's duathlon ITU Duathlon World Championships 2006 Corner Brook Junior Representing  England Men's triathlon Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014 Men's race Glasgow 2014 Mixed team relay

Alistair Edward Brownlee, MBE (born 23 April 1988) is a British triathlete. He is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medallist in the triathlon, and the only athlete to win two Olympic titles in the event. He is also a two-time Triathlon World Champion, winning in 2009 and 2011, a two-time World Team Champion (2011, 2014), a three-time European Champion, and 2014 Commonwealth champion.

His brother, Jonathan Brownlee, is also a triathlete, placing second in the 2016 Olympics, third in the 2012 Olympics, winning the 2012 World Championship and the last World Sprint Triathlon Championship, in addition to accompanying his brother in their World and Commonwealth mixed team relay victories.^[5]

Brownlee was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to triathlon.^[6][7]

Early life and education

Brownlee was educated at Bradford Grammar School,^[8] a co-educational independent school in the city of Bradford in Yorkshire, followed by Girton College, Cambridge, where he started a medicine degree.^[9] After just the first eight-week term, Brownlee decided to leave and instead went to the University of Leeds, where he gained a degree in Sports Science and Physiology in 2010.^[9][10][11] He is now studying for an MSc in Finance at Leeds Metropolitan University.^[10][12]

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^[13] and cross country runner, coming second in the Junior English Cross Country Championships^[14][15] and winning the Yorkshire County title on several occasions.^[16][17]

Brownlee 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".^[18] Subsequently, Brownlee left Girton College, Cambridge where he was reading medicine,^[19] 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".^[18] He is a member of the triathlon club based at Leeds Metropolitan University's Carnegie High Performance centre,^[4] and is coached by Carnegie Director of Sport Malcolm Brown, and in swimming by Jack Maitland.^[4]

Brownlee has two brothers, Edward and Jonathan. His younger brother Jonathan is also a triathlete, winning the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Triathlon career

Alistair Brownlee wins the Hyde Park Triathlon, London, August 2011

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.

Brownlee 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^[20][21] and thereby became the first person ever to win the ITU world Triathlon titles for Junior Men (2006), Under 23 Men (2008) and Senior Men (2009).^[22]

During the 2010 off season, Brownlee sustained a stress fracture of the femur and wasn't able to return to competition until June, which made defence of his ITU title almost impossible.^[23] He did however mark his return to competitive triathlon with a convincing win in Madrid, followed a month later with the European Triathlon Union (ETU) Championships title.^[24] Collapsing with exhaustion at the London race,^[25] in late July, meant that despite also going on to win 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.^[26] This was contrasted with outstanding success when, in the space of just twenty-one days during June 2011, Brownlee convincingly won the next two ITU series events (in Madrid^[27] and Kitzbühel^[28]) 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.^[29][30] Brownlee won the 2011 ITU world title after winning the Grand Final in Beijing and the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics on 7 August^[31] while his brother finished in 3rd, taking the bronze medal.

Ali won the Commonwealth Games Triathlon in 2014, controlling the race with his brother Jonny, from the start, before pulling away on the 1st lap of the run in dominating style. Jonny took Silver.^[32]

Brownlee also took gold in the mixed triathlon team relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, with brother Jonathan, Vicky Holland and Jodie Stimpson.^[33]

At the final race of the 2016 World Triathlon Series in Cozumel, Mexico, Alistair Brownlee helped his brother Jonny over the line after his brother, who was leading comfortably heading into the final kilometre of the 10km run, began to show the effects of heat and exhaustion and began to weave across the course and appeared on the verge of collapse. Alistair effectively gave up his chance of winning the race in order to assist his brother finally pushing him over the line and coming in third himself. The South African Henri Schoeman, who won bronze behind the Brownlees in Rio, overtook Jonny to win the race.^[34]

Titles

• 7 Times Yorkshire Cross Country Champion U13 – Senior
• 7 Times Yorkshire fellrunning champion
• 2006 Junior European Duathlon Champion
• 2006 Junior World Champion^[4][35]
• 2007 Junior European Champion^[36]
• 2007 Junior World Vice-Champion^[37]
• 2008 U23 World Champion^[38][39]
• 2009 Hyde Park Triathlon Champion^[40]
• 2009 British National Elite Duathlon Champion.
• 2009 ITU World Champion^[20]
• 2010 ETU European Champion^[24]
• 2011 World Team Champion
• 2011 ETU European Champion^[30]
• 2011 ITU World Champion^[20]
• 2012 World Team Champion
• 2012 Olympic Champion.
• 2014 European Champion
• 2014 World Team Champion
• 2014 Commonwealth Games Champion
• 2014 Commonwealth Games Team Gold
• 2016 Olympic Champion

ITU competitions

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.

• 2008, won the U23 World Championship and placed 12th at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
• 2009, won the Dextro Energy World Championship Series placing first in almost all of the circuit's triathlons (i.e. Madrid, Washington DC, Kitzbühel, London, and Gold Coast).
• 2010, opened the season with the European Championship gold medal but subsequently had to put up with a stress fracture of the femur.
• 2011, won the World Championship Series triathlons in Madrid and Kitzbühel, leading the ITU World Championship ranking, and crowned himself again European Elite Champion.

The following list is based upon the official ITU rankings and the ITU Athlete's Profile Page.^[41] Unless indicated otherwise, the following events are triathlons (Olympic Distance) and refer to the Elite category.

DNF = did not finish · DNS = did not start · BG = the sponsor British Gas

French Club Championship Series

In 2010, only the femur fracture could slow Brownlee's dominance for some time. At the opening triathlon in Dunkirk (23 May 2010), Alistair was not present, his brother Jonathan won the gold medal. At Beauvais (13 June 2010) Alistair placed 9th. At the Triathlon de Paris (18 July 2010), however, and at Tourangeaux (29 August 2010), Brownlee won the gold medals again. At the Grand Final in La Baule (Triathlon Audencia, 18 September 2010), Alistair placed 2nd, Jonathan 3rd, and their rival Javier Gómez Noya could win 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 (24 April 2011), Dunkirk (22 May 2011), and Paris (9 July 2011) Brownlee was the winner.

See also

• 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics gold post boxes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alistair Brownlee.

• Official website
• Alistair Brownlee profile on britishtriathlonmedia.org
• Alistair Brownlee profile at triathlon.org
• Alistair Brownlee profile at Channel 4
• Alistair Brownlee profile at BBC World Olympic Dreams