![]() "We would just be going cycling with our mates at weekends for a laugh," remembers Alistair, the elder by almost exactly two years. ![]() With the exception of Jonny's early dislike of swimming lessons (he used to hide his kit-bag to get out of them) it was always all about fun, rather than training. Taken to swimming lessons by mother Cathy from the age of four, they would cycle the seven miles to secondary school and then, thanks to the unusually benevolent attitude of their teachers at Bradford Grammar, be allowed out of the school grounds at lunchtime to go running. If it sounds idyllic, it was also near-perfect preparation for the sport they would come to dominate. Norman notwithstanding, the real roots of the brothers' successes lie in the landscape of their native west Yorkshire.īrought up by their parents to enjoy the great outdoors, they had a childhood that involved running up fells and through woods, riding through the Dales and swimming in lakes. "Every time he sees me," agrees Alistair, "he says, 'You really remind me of someone. "When he was in the merchant navy during the war his ship was sunk, but he managed to swim all the way to shore. "He tells us that he is responsible for our sporting genes," says Jonny. If they do, their grandfather Norman will know who deserves the initial credit: himself. The top two triathletes in the world by some distance, they will go into the London Olympics, injury permitting, with a very real chance of winning gold and silver. There is very little that is average about Alistair and Jonny Brownlee.
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