Alistair Brownlee

Early life and education

Brownlee was educated at Bradford Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in the city of Bradford in Yorkshire, followed by Girton College, Cambridge, where he started a medicine degree. 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. In 2013 he completed an MSc in Finance from Leeds Metropolitan University.

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.

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

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

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 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).

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. 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. Collapsing with exhaustion at the London race, 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. 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 and Kitzbühel) 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. 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 while his brother finished in 3rd, taking the bronze medal.

Brownlee 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.

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, Alistair Brownlee helped his brother Jonny over the line after his brother, who was leading comfortably heading into the final kilometre of the 10 km 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.

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 second-placed finisher. 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

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.

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 (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.