Jonny Brownlee is hoping that four weeks training at a “tried and tested” altitude camp in St Moritz will give him the impetus he needs to perform at next weekend’s Paris test event - and put him on the road to a fourth Olympic Games.
With individual bronze (London 2012) and silver (Rio 2016), and mixed team relay gold from Tokyo ‘2020’ already to his name, the 33-year-old flies to the holding camp at Libourne near Bordeaux on Monday with training partner and current World Triathlon Championship leader Beth Potter.
They will join Loughborough-based Alex Yee and Sophie Coldwell who have already made the trip and are also on the start-list along with world Under-23 champion Kate Waugh and Olivia Mathias.
“We’ll see if it works again,” Brownlee said of the Switzerland location that was the prelude for previous Games’ success, adding that having struggled with hamstring tendinopathy – “literally a pain in the arse” – he now has a clean bill of health and ready to improve on his only podium of 2023, a runner-up spot in the European Championship in Madrid.
“Thankfully, my body is in far better shape now, and far healthier and hopefully I can show that in these next couple of races. It’s not just Paris but the Grand Final and Super League racing as well.”
What if the test event becomes a duathlon?
That contest in Madrid was turned into a duathlon after the water failed to pass the required standards for the swim. After recent heavy downpours, World Triathlon issued a memo earlier this week indicating that the same fate could befall the test event, which uses the River Seine in the heart of the city.
If it was switched to a run-bike-run then it would mean that the races would no longer count for automatic qualification purposes precluding Yee – as the only current individual Olympic medal holder racing following Georgia Taylor-Brown’s calf tear – from ticking the box here.
“This is a road we’ve been down many times before,” Brownlee said. “In Rio, it was the water quality, and in Tokyo, it was the heat and the water temperature. The simple answer is that we’ll prepare the best we can, hopefully for a triathlon, but if not we’ll race what it needs to be.
“We have to put all our trust and faith in World Triathlon and the organisers to make sure we have a safe environment to compete, whether that involves cancelling the swim or not.”
After sickness among athletes following last weekend's WTCS race in Sunderland, and the threat of swim cancellation here, Coldwell said triathlon is not alone in facing environmental challenges.
“I think you see it across a whole range of sports,” she said. “The F1 in Imola got cancelled because of flooding, and there’s been issues with fires across the globe. There are a whole host of weather issues that are affecting sport.
“Water quality has become an issue for tri, but hopefully these issues can be resolved and I know councils and local authorities are trying to put things in place to make it as safe as possible.”
What will the test event course be like?
The course, which has been designed to showcase many of Paris landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, is an unknown quantity. “I’ve gone around on a Boris Bike [hire bike] if that counts,” Yee said. “But I still find it hard to comprehend that there’s going to be a triathlon held there.
“There’s millions of tourists everywhere and cars going up and down like crazy, so it’s hard to believe we’re going to race in front of some of the most iconic sites in the world. Hopefully the test event will allow us to learn as much as we can about what it will be like next year.”
Who will win the Paris test event?
With many countries using the event in Paris as a selection race, the competition is expected to be fierce. “There is a whole roster of people you could put up for the podiums,” Coldwell said.
Potter, who leads the current standings from France’s Cassandre Beaugrand and USA’s Taylor Spivey, cites the French, Americans and fellow Brits as podium contenders, and picks out Saturday’s PTO US Open winner and powerhouse cyclist Taylor Knibb too.
“Knibb is going to be on the start-line so it’ll be interesting, I won’t be totally surprised with any of those on the podium.”
For the men’s race, expectations are on another Yee versus Hayden Wilde showdown with the pair having two wins apiece on the series to date. “At the moment we somehow seem to find each other in the race no further than 10m apart, so we’ll see if that continues,” Yee said. “But there are 55-60 very capable athletes who I won’t underestimate.”
What can triathletes learn from the test event?
It will be Brownlee’s third test event after missing Rio with a stress fracture and he has fond memories of his third-place finish in London in 2011. At that time every other third-place male finisher in past Olympic test events had gone on to repeat the feat the following year. The omens rung true again for 2012.
“I guess my advice is don’t worry about it,” he said. “Try and qualify the best you can but don’t worry if things don’t go well because it can change. Kristian [Blummenfelt] was next to me when he crashed out in the [Tokyo] test event and he went on to win [Olympic gold].
“Alex won’t mind me saying that he didn’t have a great test event either, but did when it actually counted. It doesn’t always mean it will be replicated the following year.”
What does it mean for Olympic selection?
While a duathlon might rule out automatic selection, with a strong performance in Paris and at the season finale in Pontevedra in Spain, there is an opportunity for discretionary confirmation of an Olympic spot this autumn, taking the pressure off heading into 2024.
“With athletics, I’m used to qualifying six weeks out,” said Potter, who ran in the 10,000m in the Rio Olympics. “It would be better to do it this year as that would remove the stress, and I can focus fully next year.”
While the women look to be assured of three starting spots for the individual event next year, the men are struggling to gain enough points to grab that final berth, but Yee hasn’t given up hope.
“There are definitely people I train with, and Jonny trains with, who are extremely worthy of standing on World Series start lines and hopefully competing at Olympics Games one day,” he said. “I think there are loads of athletes who can happily step up, not only to aid our performance but to give themselves the best chance as well.”
Top image credit: George Wood/Getty Images
