Alistair is a member of the UK Sport Lottery Funded World-Class Performance Squad. The London 2012 & Rio 2016 Olympic Champion is based at the Leeds Performance Centre. On winning his second Olympic gold medal in Rio, Alistair became the first triathlete ever to successfully defend the Olympic title.
The older of the Brownlee brothers, Alistair became the first British triathlete to win an Olympic medal since the sport was introduced to the Games in Sydney 2000. Alistair's younger brother Jonathan won the bronze medal in London, and a silver medal in Rio.
He is a two time ITU World Champion, having won the title in 2009 and 2011 and has twice won the ITU Mixed Team Relay world title. He also won the European title twice and is the 2014 Commonwealth Champion.
He was introduced to triathlon by his uncle, Simon Hearnshaw. As a junior, he was a successful fell and cross country runner, coming second in the English Junior Cross Country Championships and winning the Yorkshire County title on several occasions.
Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, Alistair was educated at Bradford Grammar School. He began a degree in medicine at Girton College, Cambridge, but left in 2006 to focus on triathlon and study for a degree in Physiology and Sport at the University of Leeds. He has also completed an MSc in finance at Leeds Metropolitan University and received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Leeds in 2013.
Major Results
Alistair is the only triathelte in history to have won two Olympic gold medals
Alistair showed his potential at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Aged just 20, he was up with the leaders until the final 3km of the race. He finished 12th and the following year was the most dominant athelte in the world, winning all five of the World Triathlon Series rounds that he took part in and lifting the ITU world title in Australia.
In doing so, he became the first person to win the ITU Triathlon World Championship titles for Junior (2006), Under 23 (2008) and Senior (2009).
In February 2010 Brownlee was diagnosed with a left leg femoral stress fracture. He announced his full recovery with a win at the ITU World Championship Series Madrid on 5 June and then convincingly won the European title in Athlone, Ireland on 3 July. In winter 2011 he had another stress fracture, but went on to win the ITU World title. In Feb 2012 he suffered an Achilles tear, which delayed the start to his race season.
Following more injury and surgery on his ankle in August 2015, he returned with wins in the Leeds and Stockholm legs of the ITU World Triathlon Series and retained his Olympic title - becoming the first person ever to retain an Olympic triathlon title. In 2017 he underwent hip surgery, which ruled him out of the latter part of the season.
In 2017, Alistair successfully tested himself over middle distance triathlon as part of his long term goal to win the IRONMAN world championship. In his Ironamn 70.3 debut, he won the North American Pro Championship in St. George in a time of 3:41:58, which was a course record. This qualified him for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, but he did not take part due to having had surgery on his hip.
