Brownlee brothers against the rest in Hyde Park

The 24-year-old from Leeds, twice the world champion, is the hot favourite to win the triathlon through Hyde Park this lunchtime, with his younger brother Jonny, 22, also in the hunt.

But six months ago such dreams were on the verge of being shattered as Alistair suffered an Achilles injury.

By no means season-threatening, it did erode the base of endurance triathletes build up during the winter months.

As Jonny headed out of the brothers’ front door every morning for his latest training run from their home in leafy Bramhope, Alistair could only grimace and turn to an alternative form of healing –aqua jogging..

“I’ve done a lot in the past and it’s just the most boring thing in the world,” laughed Alistair.

“I was doing sessions in a public pool with kids jumping on my head and old grannies telling me I shouldn’t be there and I thought ‘this is ridiculous I’m racing in the Olympics in six months’.”

If he wanted to arrive fully fit at London 2012, Alistair had to take matters into his own hands. 
“I looked into different ways of doing it and my own pool was one of them,” said Brownlee.

“I decided I was only really going to use it a lot if it’s in my back garden and I can’t get away from it.

“So first off I had to dig a hole to put the pool in and then we got it delivered and I could crack on.

“It was brilliant because after three weeks in a cast I could almost go up to my full running volume on this treadmill (immersed in the pool) and it worked really well.

“I probably did that for five weeks and then transitioned back to road running.”

While it worked for Alistair, who returned in May and promptly won two races, one a World Series event, it was not always greeted well by his neighbours.

“My house doesn’t really have much of a garden so it was almost next to the main road,” he said.

“The neighbours all claimed to be all right with it but someone must have put a complaint in because I was in it one day and a little man from the council came round and asked if I had planning permission ‘for that’.”

Today’s triathlon is the culmination of years of hard work for the Brownlees.

Alistair has been the dominant force in the sport for three years with the emergence of Jonny, twice a winner in the World Series this year, making them a formidable partnership.

While International Triathlon rules forbid the two brothers from crossing the line together, they also face opposition from the chasing pack, with New Zealand’s Kris Gemmell revealing athletes from different nations are likely to work together in an attempt to stop the brothers claiming the top two steps on the podium.

Alistair saw the British road race team give their all for Mark Cavendish 10 days ago, only for the rest of the nations to work in unison against the home team. If it happens in Hyde Park, Alistair will not be fazed.

He said: “What happened to Cavendish could definitely happen to me. I’m sure other nations have talked to each other to see what they can do and they’re obviously worried about what we can do. All we can do in the race is go out and try our best and, to be honest, doing that would be more high risk for them than it is for us. We just have to go out and do what we always do.

“At the end of the day, they know that when they get to the end of the bike they have to have a lot fresher legs than me or be in front of both of us in the race, so if they want to try it, let them.”

This is Jonny’s first Olympics but he did at least experience Beijing as part of the GB development squad. Alistair was there as a raw 20-year-old with no expectation on him.

“This time I’m going in as the favourite and in a home Olympics but it is still a triathlon, he said.