Team GB will not feature a Brownlee brother in the triathlon squad for the first time at an Olympics since 2004, as the final lineup was announced for the Paris Games. Jonny Brownlee, who was part of the team that won mixed relay gold in Tokyo three years ago, has not been included despite placing third at a European Cup event in Kielce, Poland earlier this month.
Jonny’s older brother, Alistair, who won gold at London 2012 and in Rio four years later, is now 36 and recently finished 14th in a Triathlon World Tour event in San Francisco. Selectors have opted to give a men’s place to Samuel Dickinson, who won the Kielce event. Dickinson also finished fourth at the world championships in London back in April.
Dickinson joins double Tokyo medallist Alex Yee in the team – Yee, now 26, won silver in the men’s event in 2021 as well as being part of the victorious mixed relay squad. Yee had already been named in the squad at the end of last year.
Joining Beth Potter, another to be selected last year, in the women’s lineup are Georgia Taylor-Brown and Kate Waugh. Taylor-Brown was also part of the winning Tokyo mixed relay team and won individual silver despite suffering a puncture during the bike leg.
Jess Learmonth was the fourth part of the 2021 relay team but despite battling back towards competitive fitness since giving birth last September, taking part in her first event in over two years last month, she has not succeeded in forcing her way back into the Olympic reckoning.
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Team GB’s chef de mission, Mark England, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Georgia, Kate and Sam to be part of Team GB’s cohort of Paris 2024 Olympians. Triathlon in Paris will be one of the great spectacles of this Olympic Games, and it’s fantastic that once again we have got a hugely competitive squad of athletes taking to the water and the roads.”
Mike Cavendish, British Triathlon’s performance director and Team GB triathlon lead, added: “It’s really exciting to be naming the full squad for the Olympics, for both British Triathlon and the athletes, particularly with the Games being so close to home and after the experience of a Covid Games in Tokyo.
“Throughout the process, realistic potential for winning medals was at the fore, and it’s with this in mind we welcome Georgia, Kate and Sam to join the already announced Beth Potter and Alex Yee.
“This was an incredibly hard selection process and one that I’m aware brings delight for some athletes but also disappointment for others. The Olympic Games is the pinnacle of our sport and I know just how much it will mean to the five who will compete in Paris this summer.”
