Jonny Brownlee is regarded as one of the greatest triathletes the sport has ever produced.

Along with his brother, Alistair, Jonny has dominated the sport for the past decade or so winning a series of titles and also setting up a number of feats that remain unprecedented in the sport.

Jonny Brownlee is a seven-time ITU Triathlon World champion besides taking gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the mixed relay event alongside his brother Alistair, Vicky Holland and Jodie Simpson.

But his greatest achievements came at the Olympic Games when he won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and then went one better in Rio de Janeiro four years later when taking the silver medal in races that were both won by his brother Alistair.

This week, Jonny made the trip to Malta as part of the Super League Triathlon Series that got underway at the Vittoriosa Waterfront yesterday.

On Thursday, he was part of a group of Super League triathletes that made a surprise visit to the Malta Youth Triathlon Academy at the Junior Lyceum in Tal-Ħandaq where 60 young kids were conducting their training session.

On his arrival, Jonny fulfilled the dream of young Maltese triathlete Jake Vella when he went straight to meet in person the nine-year-old who sufferes from ROHHAD (Rapid-onset Obesity with Hypothalamic dysfunction, Hypoventilation and Autonomic Dysregulation), a rare disease where obesity is hormonal, meaning that no matter how hard Jake trains or eats healthily, he cannot stop his body from gaining weight.

Visibly emotional after his meeting with Jake, Jonny said that he was happy to have made the day for such an inspiring kid.

“I first heard about Jake a couple of years ago and I knew that he wanted to come to meet us,” Brownlee said.

“Unfortunately, due to a packed schedule we couldn’t make the trip to come and meet Jake and we only spoke to him on Skype. Then when I heard that the Super League was coming to Malta for the first time I thought that now was the chance to come and meet Jake.

“Actually, after meeting and talking to him, I felt very emotional. To see what Jake had to go through and see him train with a big smile on his face feels just amazing.”

Jonny said that he and his brother do a lot of work with young kids through their foundation to try and inspire them to a healthy lifestyle.

“I may be here in Malta to race in the Super League Triathlon but to come to the Young Malta Triathlon Academy and see 60 kids practicing my favourite sport is very important to me,” Jonny said.

“Back at home me and my brother Alistair we take it very seriously and we have our own foundation where we have more than 22,000 kids practicing the sport, many of them doing triathlon for the first time. And at the end of the day that is why we are involved in sport to see the kids enjoying sports and getting fit with their friends and having fun.

One of the great things about Super League is that we can come to places like Malta and hopefully inspire people to take up triathlon and putting a smile on their face

“One of the great things about Super League is that we can come to places like Malta and hopefully inspire people to take up triathlon and putting a smile on their face.”

During our conversation, it was only natural to talk about his career achievements and in particular their feat of becoming the first brothers to win an Olympic medal in the same race at London 2012 when Alistair took gold and Jonny secured the bronze medal.

“London 2012 is definitely the highlight of my career,” Jonny said.

“To get two brothers on the podium, in first and third, in a home Olympics was incredible. For me it was amazing to race in front of a home crowd and win a medal. 

“At the end of the race, I had a strange feeling. Normally I used to hate to hear other athletes saying if that was real or a dream as I had never experienced it myself until I went up on that podium.

“When I woke up the next morning I checked my medal and it was still there next to me, I knew it was not a dream and I was really proud of our achievement.”

Jonny describes his relationship with brother Alistair as one built around trust of one another.

Having grown together as athletes has inevitably created a great bond and that was epitomized during the 2016 World Triathlon Series finale when Jonny, who was leading the race, was struggling to finish the course and his Jonny unselfishly helped his brother to get past the finish line in second place behind South Africa’s Henri Schoeman.

“I think racing and training together brings us a lot closer to each other,” Jonny said.

“Actually, the training and the build-up to a big competition like an Olympic Games inevitably brings about a lot of emotions. But one big thing about training with my brother is that we trust each other in training and we trust each other in racing.

“I love to race with my brother Alistair and I love to have his support next to me and luckily this close bond that we have built has brought a lot of success.”

Fresh challenge

Jonny Brownlee sees the Super League Triathlon Series as a fresh challenge for him after years of dominating the sport and is hopeful that this weekend they can put on a great show for the Maltese fans who will come down to the Vittoriosa Waterfront.

“I have been doing the world series triathlon for the last ten years now and the Super League is a fresh challenge for me,” Jonny Brownlee said.

“What I like about Super League is that it’s a completely differently and exciting format. You can change the order of event and race distances. Besides it takes you to nice places and it has inspired me to train.

“Normally my season is over at this time but because I was coming to Malta I trained hard because I wanted to come fully fit and be ready to race well.

“One good thing about the Super League is that they bring together the best athletes across all three disciplines so hopefully at the weekend we can put on a super show for the fans that will come down to see us.”

On his part, Cyprian Dalli, president of the Malta Triathlon Federation, was pleased to see world class athletes such as Jonny Brownlee come and watch his youngsters train and he hoped that this experience will surely boost their determination to continue practice the sport.

“For me these children here are the future of our sport in our country,” Dalli told the Times Malta.

“We set up this academy six years ago and we are very pleased so many kids practicing our sport. We also have a club in Gozo named TriGozo who has been established in the last two years and has also attracted a very good number of members so that is surely a promising sign for the future of triathlon.

“Surely, having world class athletes here such as Jonny (Brownlee) is a memorable occasion for our children and I’m sure it will be an experience they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

Video: Matthew Mirabelli

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