Jonny Brownlee interview: Olympic champion overcoming pain of missing Commonwealth Games with Triathlon Super League tilt

The pain of missing the Commonwealth Games and a final chance to compete in front a passionate home crowd at a multi-event extravaganza.

The mental anguish of suddenly questioning whether you will be able to stay competitive and avoid crashes, even after as many races as Brownlee has contested in his decorated career.

All from a spill onto the tarmac in Roundhay Park in the World Championship event in June – an incident he still feels aggrieved about now – that left him with a broken elbow and fractured scaphoid.

The bones are healed now, but at his first race back in Bergen, Norway, last week, Brownlee did not realise the full extent of how mentally affected he had been by the crash.

"I raced really badly, I was a bit nervous," admitted Brownlee, the 32-year-old from Leeds who has a medal of every colour from the last three Olympic Games.

"It’s the first time I’ve ever had a bike crash. I was nervous about hitting people in the swim because of my wrist, and then on the bike course I was nervous not trying to go on the outside.

"After being through what I’d been through, in the back of my mind I was expecting people to crash in front of me.

"So while the bones have healed, the mental recovery has been harder. A lot of the importance of bike riding is being good in groups, being fast round corners, and I had all that taken away because of what happened.

"That will come back, I’m sure. The rational bit of the mind kicks in, you realise you are safe, you’ve had plenty of races without crashing, so why would you crash again?

“So I needed to get that race out of the way, move on and get over the crash and I really think I did that in Bergen.

"There’s only one way to get your confidence back riding around in a group and that is by doing it. Crashes are few and far between – you’ve got to commit and be brave and get back into it.

"The best thing to do after a crash is get back on the bike.”

The elbow and scaphoid (wrist bone) fractures came just six weeks before the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, an event Brownlee did now know how much he would miss until the Games began.

A text from his father didn’t help.

“My Dad said it was the first time either me or Alistair hadn’t been at a major Games since 2007, which is something to be proud of but probably not the best thing to say the night before the Commonwealths,” laughs Jonny.

"I had been away from it, concentrating on my recovery, then suddenly it hit me that it was happening tomorrow and I should be there and am not.

"The night of the opening ceremony I couldn’t sleep at all, my head was racing with the thought of the triathlon the next day.

"It looked liked a great event as well, the crowd for the triathlon was great. You don’t get many chances for a home Games and I was missing it.”

Over the next two months Brownlee is determined to make up for lost time. He will race five times around the world, giving him plenty of opportunities to rid himself of the pain and completely put the crash behind him.

For the former world champion is one of the star attractions of Super League Triathlon, his sport’s attempt to keep up with the evolving sporting landscape with its own bite-size format.

The first race of the season is in London on Sunday, then the Super League moves to Munich next Saturday, Malibu, the following week, Toulouse at the start of October, and into a grand final in Neom at the end of next month.

"I think the Super League has been brilliant. We’re in a day and age now where you want sport to be good for TV, fast, a good package and this is a brilliant concept,” says Brownlee of a radical format that sees men and women race alongside each other in a mix of enduro, eliminator and equaliser events.

"I love racing the short format, I also love the way it’s mixed up the format, to win it you have to be a really good all-round triathlete.

"The five-week series means you’ve got to be good over the five events.

"It’s great to watch and the feedback we’ve had for it has been great.

"It could be the future of people watching the triathlon.”

Given all he he has accomplished in his career, the role he has played alongside his brother in accelerating the interest in his sport in this country in particular, his is a voice that matters.

It is why when in the immediate aftermath of that crash in Leeds, his frustrations about the role his rival Hayden Wilde of New Zealand played in the incident - for which has since apologised - should be heeded.

Three months on, with his recovery now at the stage where he needs to race himself back into fitness and confidence, he can offer more considered thoughts on the issue or triathlete welfare.

“I don’t want to be one of these old stagers complaining about the new breed of racers, I don’t want to be that person, but I do think the powers that be need to come down harder on people who are intentionally dangerous," says Brownlee.

"I completely get that when you ride your bike at 40mph you’re going to have crashes, it’s part of it, but I really think there’s two kind of aspects to it.

"Firstly, athletes have to look after each other, it has to come from within, there’s only so much the rules and regulations can do. We don’t want a situation where you can’t overtake in certain zones, or this corner is dangerous. You want athletes to look after themselves and monitor it themselves.

"And secondly, we need a bit of help from the authorities, that if it is the same people being dangerous or reckless and causing accidents then they need to come down hard on those guys.

"In my career, I don’t know how many races I’ve done, but I’ve never ever caused a crash myself. I like to think I race respectfully, look out for people, toeing the line of being competitive but knowing where that line is and not crossing it.”

Triathletes are known for how physical they can get in the swimming element in particular – Alistair Brownlee was disqualified at the World Championship event in Leeds in 2021 for ducking – but Jonny believes there is a line.

"There’s a difference with the swim, a lot of the hitting is just a coming together and accidental, because there’s not enough space. That’s fair enough, it’s part of it.

"But there are instances of targeting other athletes, you can tell when someone is following you and making the swim hard for you.

"The same with cycling. At the end of the day you’re all competing for the win on narrow bits of road, you’re flying round corners, but you’re not allowed to come up the inside of someone, take your hands off the bar and push someone, and those rules are there. Cyclists have to monitor themselves.

"But it has to get to the point where with those athletes are repeatedly doing the wrong thing, either the other athletes say something or the governing body does something.

"Because if you are putting other athletes health at risk then you should be punished.”

Brownlee’s stance is understandable, given the crash in Leeds took him out of the Commonwealth Games.

Hence the busy end to the season with the Triathlon Super League.

"I felt that if I don’t race now, then I’m going to miss the whole year,” says Brownlee, who finished third in last year’s Super League having been overtaken on the final round by British wunderkind Alex Yee and Wilde.

"I’m not quite ready, but I’ve got the all clear, the only risk now is to fall off and do it again.

"I’ll be racing myself back into fitness, and back into confidence as well.”

And then, health, fitness and competitiveness allowing, it’s full speed ahead to the Paris Olympics.

“The injury hasn’t changed the Paris plan, just put a downer on this season.

"Again it will be only if I can be genuinely be competitive in the individual and the relay. I don’t want to go there to make up the numbers.”

Something Jonny Brownlee can never be accused of.