OLYMPIC gold-medallists Alistair and Jonny Brownlee visited a York village school in December to take part in a PE lesson, tell some of their story and answer questions from pupils.
Two of the world’s most decorated triathletes - and brothers – Alistair won back-to-back golds in the men’s individual triathlon at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and Jonny took his own gold in the Mixed Relay triathlon in Tokyo 2020 – were welcomed into Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School in Bishopthorpe.
After taking part in the PE class with pupils from years three and four, the brothers were introduced to an assembly of around 100 pupils who had donned Alistair and Jonny ‘face masks’ to welcome the stars into the hall to share their story from Bramhope, near Leeds, to Olympic success.
Alistair, 35, and younger brother Jonny, 33, answered questions from the captive audience on topics ranging from their diets, being away from Yorkshire at worldwide events, living out their dreams and their shared recollections of Alistair helping an exhausted Jonny over the finish line at the end of a Triathlon World Series event in Mexico in 2016.
At least 15 hands went up when the brothers asked which pupils had tried a triathlon.
Alistair said: “It’s always fantastic when these young people have learned something about triathlon and sport beforehand.
“The directness is always amazing in the children’s questions.
“People are always interested in what the life of a professional athlete is like day in day out – which to us is what we’ve done most of our lives.”
Amy Roberts, the school’s PE teacher said: “The way we do our PE is very different – we don’t do it sports-based, we do it more with the social-emotional side of it, so I think the children’s questions reflected that.
“We went to the Brownlee Triathlon last year at York Sport and we had real enthusiasm for them to be in today.”
The brother’s own sporting heroes were much closer to home and although Jonny said he was a big fan of Leeds United Football Club, both gained inspiration from the people they came across every day.
Alistair said: “I didn’t have a sporting hero per se growing up.
“By the time I remember watching sport I was really into endurance events, so I guess Simon Lessing and Simon Whitfield winning the first individual men’s Olympic gold medal in Sydney in 2000.”
Jonny said: “For me, seeing Alistair get the Great Britain kit for the first time, put it on the kitchen table, and then go to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, made me believe that I could do that as well.”
“Hopefully us coming to schools like this shows that we are real people, so if you have a dream and someone that you’ve seen has achieved something, you can do that as well.
“I grew up thinking that Olympians were these special people, that ‘there’s no chance I can be one of them’.
“Seeing Alistair do that made me believe I could and hopefully we can pass that on, show that we’re here, from Yorkshire, from Leeds, training hard on muddy fields and that means you can achieve your dreams.”
Alistair and Jonny Brownlee attended Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School as part of their partnership with rural broadband provider Quickline.
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