Sporting Heroes Month: Alistair Brownlee

In association with MaxiNutrition

For the month of May, Attitude online will be showing off the best of the best of 2015’s sporting heroes. Here, we give you the low-down on one half of Britain’s premier sporting brotherly duo, champion triathlete Alistair Brownlee…

Top sporting achievement: He’s the current European and Commonwealth Champion, but his crowning achievement was surely winning the Olympic gold for triathlon at London 2012.

Better Half: Unconfirmed, which as we all know, pretty much reads SINGLE.

Best Attribute: He’s a handsome lad who certainly fills out that lycra, but that über-ripped athletic physique means we can’t go for anything other than those rippling abs…

Sporting Quote: “I was bribed into starting swimming with the promise of sweets and by being told that you can win medals.” Inspiration if ever we heard it.

Special Weapon: His younger brother Jonathan, also a triathlete, who won bronze at London 2012. They might be bitter rivals on the track, but the brothers often use each other to help set the pace and control the race: “At the European Championships, Ali got a puncture so I slowed down the pack for him”, Jonny admitted back in 2012.

Style:  It’s not often you’ll see Ali out of a lycra one-piece (though that’s no bad thing, tbh), but he did scrub up rather well in a navy suit when collecting his MBE from Her Majesty back in 2013.

Alistair (r) competes alongside younger brother Jonathan (l)

Training Tip:

Commitment and family support are key: Alistair says he “can’t remember” the last time he didn’t go for a run on Christmas Day. “I think all our relatives understand that and are very accommodating,” he says. “It might have been viewed as a bit of an inconvenience when we were younger, but not now”.

In The Game: Alistair’s fearsome reputation precedes him: Ahead of the 2015 season current World Champion Javier Gomez revealed that the Yorkshire boy was his “toughest” rival to beat, while prior to London 2012, Canadian rival Simon Whitfield said the Brownlee brothers had “changed the game”.

Wins:
2008: U23 World Champion
2009: Hyde Park Triathlon Champion
2009: British National Elite Duathlon Champion.
2009: ITU World Champion
2010: ETU European Champion
2011: World Team Champion
2011: ETU European Champion
2011: ITU World Champion
2012: World Team Champion
2012: Olympic Champion.
2014: European Champion
2014: World Team Champion
2014: Commonwealth Games Champion
2014: Commonwealth Games Team Gold

Attitude: “We get to do something we love every day and get to call it a job. Of course it is our job, but the time we get to cycle and run round the Yorkshire countryside is a pleasure and an adventure that we never think of it as that.”