Alistair Brownlee Calls it a Career

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee has announced his retirement from pro triathlon racing after an 18-year career that included two Olympic gold medals and an impressive 38 wins and 54 podium finishes in his 90 World Triathlon starts. Brownlee showed glimpses of his incredible talent during his long-course career, too, including a pair of runner-up finishes at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in 2018 and 2019 along with three full-distance titles, but was hampered by numerous injuries since he made the move in 2017.

“Ultimately, it just feels really right,” Brownlee said. “I know it is a kind of a wishy washy kind of thing to say, but it does and I’m really happy with it. It’s a combination of…I have been doing it for a long time and there’s so many other things in sport I want to be able to do. I want to be able to do all kinds of endurance challenges. I want to stay fit and healthy and be part of sport, hopefully into my old age. And I’m definitely aware, you know, putting the miles on the clock and wearing things down. So I want to retire fit and healthy and not be forced to retire by injury and illness or whatever.”

“It has got more difficult for me,” Brownlee continued. “I can’t do anywhere near the training that I used to be able to do. So I also found it hard at times being on the start line, knowing that I’m not prepared to the level that I’d like to be. And I’m older. I’m 36. I’ve done it for a long time and there’s a lot of other things I want to do with my life.”

In 2022 Brownlee was appointed to the IOC Athlete’s commission. He’s also been an avid and active supporter of the Professional Triathletes Organisation – he was a member of the PTO Athlete Board and was one of the contracted athletes for this year’s T100 Triathlon World Tour. After a season full of struggles, he finished third at the final race in the series in Dubai, and fifth overall in the standings.

Olympic Gold

After winning the world junior title in 2006, it wasn’t long before Brownlee surged on to the elite triathlon scene. In 2008 he won the U23 world title and finished 12th in his first Olympics. In 2009 he was unbeaten at WTS races and won the elite world title. He would take another world title in 2011, and then thrilled the nation with a gold-medal performance at the London Olympics. He would take two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the individual and mixed relay events and in 2016 he defended his Olympic title in Rio.

A few weeks after his gold-medal performance, Brownlee would be part of the infamous finish with his brother Jonny at the world championship final in Cozumel. Trying to help his brother take the world title with a win at the race in Cozumel, Brownlee ended up stopping to help carry an exhausted Jonathan across the finish line.

In 2017 Brownlee made his long-distance debut with a pair of half-distance wins in Gran Canaria and IRONMAN 70.3 St. George. The following year he finished second in an epic 70.3 worlds behind Jan Frodeno and ahead of Javier Gomez. In 2019 he won Ironman Ireland (the swim was cancelled), finished second again at the 70.3 worlds in Nice, struggled to a 21st-place finish in Kona and then rounded out the year with a huge win at IRONMAN Western Australia. He would take one more IRONMAN win in Sweden in 2022. Much of the last few years of his career he was plagued with injuries and sickness.

Brownlee Foundation

Alistair and Jonathan founded the Brownlee Foundation in 2014 “to inspire children to get active and encourage regular participation in sport.” Alistair says he wants “to continue to work on a grow (the foundation) over the next ten years with a bit more time and energy to do it.”

“I really believe in the importance of sport in everyone’s life,” Alistair told the PTO. “It was absolutely crucial to my life. I believe young children need to discover if they have a passion for it. As early as possible and then be engaged in sport. And I think triathlon is an amazing vessel to engage people across the three sports. And that’s very much what we try and do with the Foundation. And I’d like to do a lot more of that in the future.”

Staying Active

In addition to his work with the foundation, Brownlee says he’ll be involved with “a couple of companies … that are going to be launching over the next few months.” Despite what appears to be a busy schedule, he intends to remain fit and active.

“I’ve got a list of events that I wanted to do, whether that’s more gravel racing, ultrarunning, endurance bike packing races, mountain bike stuff, anything that’s kind of challenging,” he said. “Maybe some of the extreme triathlons, more challenge and completion things. So staying fit to do that, and I’m looking forward to that very much. Stay involved in triathlon. I really enjoy the work I do with the IOC and trying to guide sports into a new area and I think that’s an important thing to do.”