Sam Dickinson interview: 'I'm glad it's another kid from Yorkshire ending Jonny Brownlee's Olympic career'

Sam Dickinson, a 26-year-old from York who spent hours training with the Brownlees, is the man who ended their long Olympic association by outlasting Jonny in what had become a straight race between the two for the final spot on the train to Paris.

Like Alistair before him, Jonny’s Olympic career finishes on three appearances and one more medal than his older brother - bronze in London, silver in Rio and gold in Tokyo to complete the set.

The book is closed on the Brownlee era, a transformative age for triathlon at which the Leeds brothers were at the vanguard.

The torch has passed to Londoner Alex Yee who will look to improve on his silver medal in Tokyo, and to Dickinson, the humble son of a military family who went to boarding school in Scarborough and York before picking the University of Leeds, because if you want to train with the best triathletes in Britain you go to the Brownlee’s back yard.

“It might be a passing of the torch,” Dickinson admits to The Yorkshire Post. “If I can do a fraction of what those lads have done then I’ll be happy.

“Jonny has got the legacy and the experience behind him, but I’m glad they gave me the nod.”

In what had become a straight shootout over the last few weeks for that final spot, Dickinson emerged as the stronger athlete than 34-year-old Jonny Brownlee, beating him at a European sprint race in Poland two weeks ago to confirm his form.

“I wouldn’t say it was intimidating going up against Jonny, because the respect is there,” says Dickinson.

“It’s just another triathlon race, so it’s focusing on yourself and not worrying about what other people do because you can’t control that.

“Jonny has been class. I wouldn’t call him a rival, I’m sure he’d be happy that if he didn’t go it’s another kid from Yorkshire.

“I’m sure he’ll reach out and wish me good luck and I’ll try and get some advice from him.”

Dickinson’s emergence is by no means sudden.

A swimmer and a runner in his youth, he got the Olympic bug when he attended events at London 2012, but that was predominantly watching the hockey.

“I was a jack of all trades, master of none. I played a lot of hockey at the time and thought that would be the sport I’d go into,” he says.

“But I kept plugging away at swim, bike and run and that’s what I ended up doing.”

He started combining the three in a triathlon in 2013, quickly graduated to the Yorkshire Triathlon Academy, won the national junior title a year later and then went to European and world juniors the following summer.

Injuries held him back at times, but the summer of 2021 was a seminal moment.

First he made his debut on home roads in the World Series race in Leeds.

He was off the front of the race in the bike section through the city centre when Alistair Brownlee was dropped in his final bid to make it to a fourth Games in Tokyo.

“All of my mates from university came down to watch and they all died their hair ginger,” says Dickinson. “When I rode past them off the front of the race everyone went mental. That’s a memory that is going to stick with me.”

Another came months later when he travelled to the Tokyo Olympics as Britain’s unused reserve.

“I was fine until I watched the triathlon out of my hotel window while on the turbo trainer,” remembers Dickinson.

“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and it was at that point that I thought I’m going to the next one and I’m going to be racing it.”

That he has proven as good as his word owes much to his own discipline, and managing his intensity levels.

The Brownlees were famous for training 35 hours a week. Dickinson ‘only’ trains 25-30 hours a week to manage his body.

“The intensity has always been there. It’s measuring that intensity. There’s training too much and getting injured and that doesn’t get you where you need to be.”

In Paris he will race the individual triathlon, but he has primarily been picked for the relay in the second week of the Games.

“You can’t get ahead of yourself, you’ve just got to put your best performance out there when it matters, then the result takes care of itself,” adds Dickinson, who was a gold medallist in the mixed relay at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

“I’m just glad that another kid from Yorkshire is going and keeping the run of triathletes from Yorkshire alive.

“Hopefully there’s another little kid from Yorkshire watching the television who is like he’s proved it can be done.”