Rebecca Astill Commissioning Editor

Alistair Brownlee was the first athlete ever to defend the Olympic triathlete title.

Over an 18-year career, he claimed gold at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, as well as 22 World Series events, two World Championships, a Commonwealth title and four European Championships, to name only a few.

Two years into retirement, Brownlee shows little sign of slowing down. When he’s not working with his brother Jonny on the Brownlee Foundation – their charity encouraging young people into sport – he’s focused on his own business, Truefuels, which sells energy gels and electrolytes.

It’s hard to reconcile all this with the unassuming man who strolls into our office alone on a Thursday in March. It’s not the first time the point has been made. In 2021, he told The Telegraph that he was once told that he’s “an inspiration because he looks so normal it makes everyone think that if he can do it, they could too”.

I caught up with him for our Readers Ask series, where industry specialists answer questions from our Telegraph Recommended Reader Panel.

How old were you when you started to compete professionally? Mary-Grace, East of England

I did my first triathlon when I was eight, but didn’t compete professionally until I was 18.

I won the World Junior Championships, and I did some serious races the year after I was 19. I went to the Beijing Olympics as a 20-year-old the year after.

What advice do you wish you would have received when you considered a career in sports? Ekaterina, London

My parents, my dad in particular, recommended that I studied alongside sport when I was young.

I also had some brilliant advice from my coach Malcolm, who told me to believe that I could win the Olympic games – but only by one stride, which was a great way of saying have faith but not too much, and train really hard.

Endurance sport, although it sounds a bit cliché, is a long game. Don’t rush things, look after your body, focus on the small things: nutrition, sleep, recovery, all of that, and that will pay dividends over a long period of time.

What was it like competing so hard against your brother and could you put the result to one side after the race was over? Caroline, East of England

I didn’t know any different. I’ve competed against my brother since I was really young – six-years-old or probably even younger in the garden at home so it’s very natural to me.

Even at the top level of the sport I think we took it for granted. We would be training side by side at home in Yorkshire one day and competing in the top races in the world the day after.

We basically knew that we were each other’s best training asset and we also knew that we could help each other in racing as well as the training.

We pretty much always put it aside straight after the race, and that was partly about our relationship and partly because we both had that kind of mentality, we were always thinking about the next thing.

Who was your biggest competitor and why? Nicolle, South East

Obviously my brother Jonny was a big competitor throughout the main part of my career.

I also had a very talented, ferocious Spanish competitor called Javier Gómez. I raced him probably 100 times during the same period. He came second at the London Olympics and beat me to the world title quite a few times.

We were very close in physical ability, and well matched in terms of where we were in the race. Quite a few of our races came down to sprint finishes.

What was the most interesting destination in the world you visited? Boris, North West

I must admit, I actually loved racing at home in the UK. The London Olympics really stands out as a special thing in my career, as well as when we had a World Series in Leeds, and there were thousands of people on the side of the course.

Of course, I love travelling further afield. I enjoyed going to South America and Brazil in the lead up to the Rio Olympics, and I enjoyed going to Asia because a lot of it felt so different, especially in China and Japan.

But I tend to be more of an outdoor mountain person than a city or beach person. I loved training in the Swiss Alps, and enjoyed going to Austria to race in Kitzbühel.

Which title did you enjoy the most – London or Rio? Md. Fakhrul, West Midlands

I feel like I was very lucky to have won two Olympic Games, and picking between them is tough. They were very different.

In London I was the favourite, and was pretty confident, to be honest, that I was going to win that race and pull it off. I think under that weight of expectation, especially the internal expectation, it felt amazing.

In Rio I’d had some big injuries. I’d had surgery in the lead up to it, and it felt much more like a personal challenge. So to pull it off was a massive achievement.

How do you cope with the pressure and nerves of competition? Jacob, London

I think pressure, nerves and competition are just a fact of life for everyone, but especially for professional athletes.

It’s really important that you’re nervous before a big event because it shows that it means something to you. And if it means something to you, it’s important. And you’ll put the work in to get there.

It’s a cliché that pressure is a privilege. But if you think about it, it’s much better to have pressure than not have it, because it means you’ve done something to deserve it. And I quite like that kind of blunt perspective and way of looking at it.

I had this amazing moment at the London Olympics where I felt under a lot of external and internal pressure. I went down to Hyde Park on the day of the race and onto the course and there were hundreds and thousands of people spectating. It was an amazing atmosphere compared to most triathlons.

I thought, oh wow, there’s all these people here, this is stressful and high pressure. Then at some point I realised that 99 per cent of these people were just there to support not only me but the athletes, but mostly me because they had British flags. It genuinely flipped in my head that there’s always expectation but it’s positive. It’s support. It can help me to do better.

How do you maintain such discipline with your schedule and commitments? Anna, North West

At the time of competing and training professionally, your life has to be all about routine.

I actually think you don’t want to use discipline and willpower. You want to do everything you can to remove that from the equation so your life is just a routine, an automatic process, so you’re never having to use up energy to make a decision or motivate yourself to do what you need to do.

When I was competing, I built the best training routine I thought I could build. I’d worked up to it for years and it meant that on a Monday morning I knew I was getting out of bed, I was swimming at this time, doing this type of swim, getting out. Then i was having breakfast here, going out for a bike ride, going home, having a rest, going for a run that evening, going for a run at this time. I just had this routine that I executed day in day out, week in week out, month in month out to build up the volume that I needed to do.

Now as a retired person who tries to stay active, it’s harder because without routine it is tough, but I’m still pretty disciplined or driven by routine in the sense that I have to do some kind of exercise pretty much every day.

If it means I have to get up early to do some exercise, that’s the time when discipline comes into play. I enjoy exercise now that it’s not my job. It’s something I do for fun and for my head space and to relax.

Which of the triathlon sports is hardest for you? Robert, South West

That one’s really easy. Swimming. I find it the hardest to do because it’s inside, boring, monotonous and there’s no conversation or socialising. Now, I ride, cycle or run most days. I love the simplicity of going running. If I miss a day it’s quite a rare thing. I think I’ve been in a swimming pool zero times since retiring.

Have you ever been attracted to any other multi-sport event, like a decathlon? David, Yorkshire

If you saw me try to sprint, throw anything or jump, you would know that I wouldn’t be very good at those sports. I guess I could have tried the modern pentathlon or something but there are difficult things like fencing or shooting involved in that.

I think I found the sport for me in triathlon. I had an ability to do endurance sports and to train for them and I loved those three sports, and I’m pretty confident that I wouldn’t have been successful at anything else.

If I would have done another sport, it probably would have been one of the triathlon components. I would have been a runner or a cyclist.

How do you cope with the cold water? Anthony, Yorkshire

Mostly, I try to avoid going in it. I actually really dislike cold water and being cold. Most triathlons are in pretty warm conditions.

I did experience a cold race recently, a race called Patagonman in Patagonia. The water could have potentially been very cold. Turns out that when I did it, it was the warmest day they’ve ever had, but anyway I was getting ready for the cold weather.

It’s quite amazing that wearing really good equipment makes such a difference. I wore a full hood, gloves and boots, so there was only a little bit of my face exposed and that really helped.

As for advice, go in the water slowly to let your body adapt to it. Put your face in for a bit, bring it out, put your face in for a bit longer, bring it out, and you do slowly get used to it.

What is the best piece of advice you can give a once-a-week runner who is coming into their 60s? Adrian, London

Running, for me, is all about consistency. That’s all that matters. You just have to build the load up really slowly and keep the load really similar. You’re probably better off doing two shorter runs a week than one longer run, for example.

To keep that consistency there over time, make a real effort. If you’re travelling, keep exactly that amount of running in that week on a similar surface. Run off road, if possible, if that suits you, and always have a good warm up beforehand.