The Brownlees: An Olympic Story BBC Documentary 2016

we are a pair we both know that we will be where we are state without each other found that we do get grouped together means we do do a lot together and I cry enjoy that we brothers this is the tale of two brothers who bicker fall out like any brothers but together like nothing more than taking on the world I'm winning flashing on together I've gone to see you one annoys you about Alice I think him turn up late I think you get a kick out of making people wait so in the born in Saint Spain and we're ready to go it's always the last ones come down I've really knows when I think he knows they're not good enough we have to see Lannister would write to reply it what about Johnny annoys you well the fact that he actually thinks I'm late on purpose to annoyed him that's fine I could obviously I'm not we're not just talking about a couple of brothers from next door we're talking about the best triathletes they've ever been in the history of the sport Alistair Brownlee is the electric triathlon jacket and there will be both of the brilliant Brown D brothers on the Olympic podium as Jonathan comes home for bronze you are Olympic champion very much feels a bit underwhelming in a way first Johnny's just Bucks medal ceremony was delayed a while because of a medical problem for younger brother Johnny he's okay now when we were kids we've completed over absolutely everything board games badminton in the garden cricket and was lots of times I used to fall out in the board games were tossed up in the air we literally played everything and competed it over it with Ed trying to keep up somewhere in the middle or siding with one of those jonathan was always much better with me he's always been a lot more kind of understanding and friendlier and he always played a lot more sports we always do Scott and garden and play football together but Alistair was a lot more individual he's kind of been on his dating a lot sir he was not bothered about playing football he's never been able to play football Elsevier family aside the one person who knows the Bramley's best is their coach and mentor Malcolm Brown the first time I met Alistair Brownlee was at the Carney running track and this gentleman came walking across the track with his two boys and I said are you here to train and then he said well yes he can he pointed to the tour of the two which was Alistar and he said this is Alistair he's quite good at cross-country running but he lacks a bit of speed and we're just wondering if there's anybody here who can help him out I saw that's interesting I said and the little one Johnny he said oh forget him he's a fuller there was times when I was doing other things with football rugby and I dreamed a painfully United and Gina Payne would be I'd been doing a bit of a bit of running and I think something like eight or nine years old so my uncle doing a triathlon and decided to keep on and go if I enjoyed endurance sports swimming and running with the things that I was good at and enjoyed doing I think triathlon just had that extra element of obviously the cycling but also the technical aspect of jumping on and off about a slight tactical aspect of other people and now putting your t-shirt on never having to remember your number but all those things but you know that added a bit more of interest to a sport to a nine-year-old that made it a bit more exciting this swimming up and down what were they like at that age as characters Alistair would generally come into the pool about four o'clock sessioned himself up us for he was one of the kids would always want to know what session was I think that's the reason why he came in because I always wrote a session on the board first so it come it observe it lock and they'd say don't like that sir don't want to do that can we change that to that can I do this instead of that getting Johnny inside to start training wasjust I'll be bagging on the wind or doing the doing later come on and if it's something on the wind or going no I'm not yeah and I'd be like ow and then it come on pull side muddy door as well going off shower ten minutes later II stroll back in again warm what was just about finished I'm a doing a warm-up now No you've already missed the first of all hundred talking now can we can we get going I've heard about Johnny because Johnny was two years younger and with Alistair being in senior school you heard the name Brownlee in junior school thought hello this is another star and of course reports coming through were very very good do you think it was essential for Johnny that he had his big brother it's a powerful it was I think it was a very good thing for him and in some ways a very difficult thing for him because obviously the name Brownlee was associated with great success okay one of the influences in their lives early on was my co coach at the least - Center Jack Maitland and Jack was looking after them as part of the northern talent group and he gave me a statement of how good they were which is they were amongst the best in the north of England at the time but what struck me really was their absolute love of the outdoors and training so when I spoke to them about what they've been doing before they come to me say on a Tuesday night that already cycled to school swam had a run at lunchtime and then turned up to do a training session it struck me that these these characters were really exceptional in their enjoyment of hard work I think it clicked very quickly really kind of back end of 2005 I went to my first World Championships as a junior it was absolutely useless at the time I thought I didn't have that good erase but I actually had one of the quickest runs and I thought you know I'm not maybe not a million miles off hearing room for a young in my age group it kind of shows me that with a bit more you know I could be there and I definitely kind of went away from that and thought well you know I can be a lot better next year and I'm going to go away and be better the word determination is just synonymous with Alistar really Alistair was a racing machine because he not only around for the school but he was running for big areas at the same time in fill races many of which I didn't even know about quite honest he'd go off from the mid week he trained in the afternoon and then racing the evening and I didn't know but that was away he was just he just loved racing nothing alistair would work his transitions after training his mother often used to say I have not to watch his tell for a bump because it's still dry because I think he'd just go strange the changing rooms shake off and he'd be in his clothes and often his mum would bring his bike down on the back of the car and Alistair would be out I'd still be wiping the board off from the session and I'd see him going fleeing past the window and jumping on the bike and waving at his mom and he'd be gone Johnny in the changing rooms having a lovely long shower waiting for a lift home in the ah but as they got older and Johnny was trying to get Lauren to use triathlons as well it would be how fast can we get on the bike and Johnny didn't wanna get left behind are the boys very much a product of a environment well if you look around pills pills pills everywhere rather going up there or down a hill it's tough country a lethen boys always love tough conditions I mean the tougher the conditions are better I suppose there is that kind of rugged tradition in Yorkshire particular fell running and there's that kind of I wouldn't say it's a myth but he did the tough you auction I think it's there it's there instead wouldn't yeah were they always competitive with each other and with other people in the group yeah the pair of them were always up for the race to the top of the next hill first man to the cafe etc yeah I mean anything that they do was to through the years they're always trying to be the best at it always trying to win a lot of people when they hear about is training 35 hours a week think that's a lot of training but nice we talk about training it's done it kept talking pitch oh you like the issue you ride it around they're so beautiful and I'll day like today it's fun starts a nice percent of its fun ten percent of it it's not so points the worst thing that Wow hey my anything it's a call to serve those days when for some reason else's drag mix it's a deal for two hours and I'm two hours into Dale's is that so inhaler and I'm thinking yeah fifty mile home that's a long way to go in the hail I just love being pay huh and I actually love this I thrive off pushing myself not only if it's a competitive situation I'm trying to hang on to someone Bor so just on my own you know being able to push myself and hurt and I've got no idea where that's come from I think it's just years and years of doing it maybe and enjoying doing it although I think my dad would tell you that you know even the first time he saw me do cross country as a six year old and went red in the face and look like I was about to die so maybe I had it then as well now your mum tells a story when you were probably one year old and Alistair start going to nursery and you crawl around so much looking that you actually make your knees bleed the fact that Alistair was always doing things ahead of you did that make a real difference to you yeah definitely I member looking up to Alistair I member moving it into our house I've got the memory of choosing the room next to Alistair even though it was a smallest room in the house for some reason I want to be next to Alistair when he did he would well me in the yorkshire country team when he came back the Yorkshire vest to compete in the national champs I thought what I can do that as well and I've been able to do that from a whole sporting career and pulling up the personality who's gonna go out there and do it for myself without someone else kind of showing me away before and I'll sit definitely did that I think I'm more of a team player I'm a lot better at kind of listen to the people and and involving their ideas results is a bit more it's my way is Ellis this way always the right way in allister's head analysis hair definitely it's always a right way and if it's not the right way and it's argue that is the right way whatever and then he'll change the opinions to what he was and say that he was arguing that way anyway but you hate is always finkies right definitely it's good in a way having someone who is a strong personality because it means that when you do something you don't believe in it and I think that's really really important for this is your cabinet got half an hour left okay relationship of equals was it still feel like Alice that is you're the big brother you have to find a safe I think it is no relationship with equals I like to think my point of view is more significant because I know Martha can be my one comment Shirley Academy is equal in if you is much type of things to say and he would be equally there's a lot like Betty it's a lot like the old adage isn't it where if you know it's someone if you disagree when there we ever talk about it listen to your point of view we have a little debate and then the other side yeah there you go do damage to take control of his own destiny I suppose quite early very it was a conversation that Jack mainland had with me on one of the regional development camps when they were teenagers and said cause these training programs all over the place you see him the most you're the one that has contact with him every day and I just said I just coach him for the swimming I said our said a lot does all of his running any cycling away from me I I said I don't know enough about the sport so he just sort of said yeah but he's doing a lot of swimming for triathlete so few sessions later I said I see we got time for a word yeah that's it Jack Schmitt we rode to think she need to balance training program why so we'll do that you do too much no I know what I need to be doing in ten years to be in the Olympics and the back of my brain thought oh what he just said and I went right he said I've got to get through the 1,500 metres on an Olympics really easy really easy because I need to blow a part of the bike and there you know on the run and I said right he said three sessions a weeks not gonna do it though is it cause I need to get out feeling fresh and I need a training program that's gonna do that he said not changing it I know I need to do in ten years and I'm doing it now so I'm ahead fourteen he knew there was no doubt that he was trying to become a world champion as you know as a junior I doubt that he would want to then be a world champion as a senior there's no doubt if you're the world champion as a senior you want to be the Olympic champ the brown D brothers are taking no prisoners here this afternoon I don't think the tactical that conditional other times in those days both Addison and Johnny in a race pretty ruthless individuals and you know they want their space in the water and they don't anybody to come in to them and there's a consequence if anybody does and they have a view of the way the race should go and how others should race and if you're quite irritated with people who aren't trying to optimize their own performance because they can see that if these guys did do different things they would be better so they try to give advice during the race they're pretty ruthless competitors but top caste sport is ruthless and if you're not willing to be ruthless then don't do something else I think the race is a lesson that probably brings us together a bit more than anything because it's at that point where it's like it feels it's those two against everyone else in the world and I think that's quite a thing that you know push us together more than anything rather than each other pulling us together everything else pushes us together almost every big race we've started will be still on the start line it's like you know we're kind of in this together do you think he would have achieved what he's achieved without you and that you pushing him on I don't think he would have achieved that if I wasn't there not as good then he would probably argue he would have still achieved it but I don't think sometimes he realizes what I can add to it and how strong it is the kind of the feeling that someone's chasing you you want to kind of push yourself on the whole time and that he doesn't realize how strong it is that there wasn't a day we could back off our session he could back off because I was chasing after him especially these last couple years I think I've been very important to him as a training partner as someone who can you can talk to as well as that competitiveness in training it was spilled over yeah House bill Dover definitely and not so much in training session sessions but kind of training races where we knew in races that are low-key and specially fun like in 2012 we raced the yahks weapon champs and we were first in 2nd and weird had a busy week and we should have just kind of running together but was absolutely maxing out the k2 go and it was a couple of weeks later I'll set up towards Achilles so that was probably went a long way to doing that and if he if both of us have backed off 1015 seconds that last little bit which you could have easily done then we would have been fine with those extra couple of years allister's been able to take it a little step further than Johnny and think a little bit of that is Johnny's still the younger brother a little bit of you know he needs to still come out of the shell a little bit and just be convinced himself that he can kick allister's ass well that always gonna let him if Johnny does fall below allister's high standards his big brother is quick to let him know they are separated by a meters Alistar stops - bellows an encouraging toward his younger brother gomez isn't broken yet Gomez he's still fighting for his world title oh my word it's goggles go through I'll be giving an office tip for that explain the world satellite for me no complete SATs galumphing is that typical of their relationship yeah absolutely I'll still be the first one to criticize Jonathan like whatever happens even if even if he did something well I'll still pick something I am and tell him what he's doing wrong so just sums up really but he was true he was right there no no he was an absolute ass come but no Jonathan probably won't take it from me obviously but he'll take it from Alistair being the older brother and obviously knows what it's all about and house fast forward to his World Series victory in gold coast in 2015 lessons have been learned since Johnny appeared on the verge of becoming top dog in the browning household his chance to prove it came at the race in London at the end of May but disaster struck Johnny browning has problems with his bike he's rebounded but there is a clearly mechanical issue for Johnny Bradley before he's even got stuck into the first lap Alistair took the win johnny was 42nd that led to a significant injury which meant that he was unable to compete in the Olympic test event in Rio after London Johnny went to Switzerland to Train and it was there that he suffered a stress fracture in his hip when injury strikes the boys turn to British triathlons lead physio Emma Deacon the thing about athletes racing at this level they're always pushing the bodies to the to the extreme really and a stress fracture is an injury it does what it says on Tim really it's like when when I bones stressed constantly constantly and I think you just get to the point where that's actually tipped over the good side and then then that causes a stress fracture so there's loads of factors that can contribute as well that we know about and that's the major thing really is learning from that for Johnny so looking actually what was his training load when he got a stress fracture what was his nutrition like what was his recovery like and then we can actually look at all that to try and prevent it happening again that was the first time in ten years at Johnny's a long period away from training and racing so I think it was actually a good thing for him and I think he's a better athlete now it makes better judgement calls now because of that experience alistair on the other hand you know so the number of occasions in the last 10 years has had two or three months or he can't run presents and it's knows how to deal with it psychologically it's allister's left ankle that has caused most of the problems he might be the fittest fastest and most determined but injuries to that ankle have stopped him from challenging four world titles in every year since winning the Olympics Canada a big contraception this year obviously other ankle reconstruction surgery which is a big deal in itself and having working very hard doing everything I can with a hand college instead of doing the trainee I think I need to do and if something goes wrong the ankle something goes wrong in them yeah that's a pain in the ass I'm really doing everything I need to do kind of around the ankle at the moment I'm scared so and you know that's the limiting factor do you feel that you know that ankle better than your own ankle now after all the time completed and the years this ankle better than any other uncle so this is the one that had the reconstruction yeah so basically had two procedures at the same time so he had the like in basic Tim said the back of ankle washed out and cleared out so that the tendons could move properly in freely through the back of the ankle and then and Alistair actually had a tendon and a ligament on the outside of the ankle missing and so it was really unstable then obviously it's quite a toe a runner which means that you're running in an unstable position on an unstable ankle so we had the lateral side of his ankle stabilized I think you'd probably have like what nearly three years of it being painful yeah yeah so I think that's the main thing like for me the biggest outcome of the operation was for our stupit to webster run pain-free because then i don't go when you injured or off for real or whatever you you know you don't feel quite right i think that there's a lag you know because because you train so hard and you're competing and traveling and stuff definitely you have a few weeks what you're thinking actually it's quite nice just to relax a bit here but you don't feel quite right you just feel I just feel hot and bothered and not use it you know not quite with it I don't feel mentally I don't feel physically with it and you know you really miss the exercise allister's good in terms of his intelligent and he researches it himself and he's got his own ideas and his own opinions I think my job is really just to to find options and to look at sort of the best ideas around an injury or best ideas around a treatment program and then I ask to choose what he wants to do because it's his body and it's his uncle and he's got a run so yeah I think that's the that's the main thing and when he does as he's told is really good when he does he told all right yeah and when he doesn't do this told he just don't tell me pastor Brown these tactics have proved to be a stroke of genius Alistair takes the win in Stockholm a stunning success have you got a favorite race win I want to race to Stockholm in 2013 where there's no way I really I should have won that race I just chose my moment right on the bike to get away and just had to hold on for dear life on the run I wasn't really that fit and I was thinking this guy should be running me down but yeah just pure determination really what does winning feel like winning feels very different depending on the event I wanted to win the York she was country champs when I was 12 I think just as much as I wanted to win the Olympics when I was 24 I had some great experience with thought you know that I was fantastic I've got everything out myself that day everyone was competitive you know the Olympics was like that for me was that kind of experience I think if I've had a really good day and I get beaten you know I might struggle to process it at that a bit more but times when you know I've had a had a race I think actually so like in Yokohama when I raced last year I would just felt terrible for the whole race the speed Rises another notch gomez has got him Gomez will wave in Yokohama I just had nothing worse than never fell in a race in my life to cross the line in a second I thought this is brilliant like there's no way I should even be here I only got here by just pushing putting myself through more than anyone else has and you know so it's actually really satified with that and so I think you can take something away from every performance like that in a way which is a good thing but also it's a bit dangerous as well because you know I don't like this attitude of I had a bad race but it is a learning experience I think that's a very convenient excuse to a lot of people why it's a good reason to have bad performances when it's not there is another threat and it comes from Spain Xavier Gomez has five world titles to his name and should the 2012 silver medalist triumph in Rio he could claim to be the greatest of this great generation but if Alistar can become the first try fleet in history to defend an Olympic title then that crown is arguably his Gomez on the outside looks like he's played it very sensibly okay I'm not going to be the best on the wonderful occasion but I'm going to be consistent whereas you love being the best on the big races Jaeger is Gomez isn't a very good job at being consistent there's no doubt about that it's a skill and you know he's absolutely nailed that skill and and very very well at it and that's why is won the world titles I had the choice to to race like that and try and win world titles if I wanted and you know train differently and try and race differently so and it's just the choice I made and I think it's been good quite closer than it looked you know just a few kind of unlucky little things and decisions I've made and it could have been very different in terms of the world titles how does the rivalry with Gomez compared to your rivalry Johnny if indeed is arrival with Johnny well I'd much prefer Johnny to beat me then Gomer has to beat me I suppose that's the that's the crunch of it and and yeah I think at the end of the day when she's done the start and I want to beat both of them I'm actually probably a bit more worried about Johnny on Earth Day than I am about Gomez why is that I think Johnny's got the capabilities have a really really good day but yeah I suppose come to the Olympics yeah much prefer Johnny to beat me then I would go miss what does it feel like beating Alistair I've been asked a few times in Hamburg 2013 he tried to come around me with about 100 years ago and I knew that I was gonna be a man because he came he just got past me and had quite a lot left off alright see you later huh I'm off now it's a sprint finish between the brothers it's gonna be tight between them but it sure doesn't win the first reaction is you know wow I've won if I have one or had a great race and then the next faction definitely is a bit that was a bit weird I'm upsetting the norm I shouldn't be beating Alistair it's something that we need to get over because you kind of expect Elsa to win and it means those days that when were equally as good as each other he's more like to edge it because he's going to expect to win and hopefully something that I've I've been able to change the last few years he's been able to expect to be Alistair I may not expect to but not think of it as completely crazy if I do I think Johnny obviously aims to to be the main man in in World Triathlon it would be a major achievement not just because his brother is his brother but because honesty is the best is ever been he's coming home he knows he's got it now it has been an absolutely fabulous performance Alistair Brownlee is the electric triathlon champion no mail traffic is everyone saying they're in a bit I don't have one so you could be the first and to won two Olympic golds for you would just eliminate all the world championships in between they'd be by-the-bye birthday yeah absolutely I think that the one day in August this year makes the other four years a bit irrelevant really that said if if Gomes wins it then it becomes very relevant and you still fancy yourself as the best one-off race adiy I like to think I'm still the best one-off racer but yeah I'm not sure it's approved or it's been tested in the last USA but yeah I think you've got to tell yourself that and you know I think if I can be in the shape workout was in London er I think I can be in position to win any any kind of travel on a light thing I'm going to be better than that so and you just got to keep telling yourself that and train towards it I think everybody needs to recognize that we're not just talking about a couple of brothers from next door we're talking about the best triathletes have ever been in the history of the school now someone close to both of you told me once that when the city was finished with try on one of you is going to be successful and one of you didn't be happy which one do you think you were I think people would probably say that I would be successful too laughing that way and be driven out I want to want to do something else yes in this question he thinks he might be history teacher somewhere but you'd be useless teacher I can't see I can't see him doing that I think I'll be the happy one I'll do what I want to do whether it's teaching or still involving support and that'll keep me happy I can't see him not being involved in sport at some level at but I could see that being coaching kids you know being been on the track on a Tuesday night they really like the idea that you're going to be able to make lots of money in stocks and shares or something where that leads to financial gain or unhappiness or whatever I don't know he'll put your try his best here would you invest in it if he puts his own money in I'd go with him but I don't have a copy his investment so and let him do it do my money only lies okay some days I wake up and think actually you know I'd love to do something else know something business or a completely different career and prove that I could be successful or something else other days I wake think I can you know just live a nice life where I've about coffee every day and not worry too much there who knows you

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Views: 332,931

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Id: t53kllG7OV4

Length: 29min 9sec (1749 seconds)

Published: Sat May 14 2016