Last Thursday Alistair Brownlee announced his retirement from elite triathlon after an incredible career which brought him two Olympic titles and two World titles along with a glut of brilliant big-race wins. So many great athletes have since paid tribute to Alistair, and explained what he meant to them.
Now six-time IRONMAN World Champion Mark Allen also has a message for the British legend.
Alistair,
Some world class athletes retire from competition only to see their days of glory fade and be silenced by the next generation of champions. Others, through their accomplishments, elevate their sport into that rarified air of eternally memorable. When they retire nothing fades. In fact it ignites a light that shines forever on what they accomplished.
You, my friend, did that and deserve the greatest round of applause an athlete can get.
You shaped our sport. Never willing to just sit back and let your ace, the run, speak for itself, you pushed your competitors on the swim, then rallied at the front on the bike. No one had ever seen this before you!
London, and bringing it home
You rose up to unbelievable pressure in London and shared glory with your country. In fact, the lore already tells of you and Jonny seeing the press saying you would win gold on the day of competition hours before you competed and that you said to your brother, “Well, we’d better get this right!”
You will be remembered as the two-time individual gold medalist in the sport of triathlon. And there are countless other titles in your long list of accomplishments that history will highlight.
Humble, insightful and real
But what is most outstanding for me is this: you are always willing to talk to athletes and people who support the sport. I saw this in Paris last summer when you spoke at an event sponsored by the USA Triathlon Foundation. You were humble and insightful and just real.
You didn’t have to do that, but you did. And you were int the middle of trying to come back for one more time to have a great race, which you just did at the T100 final. What a way to put an exclamation point on the end of an amazing career.
Go forward being you. Decades of young aspiring athletes will watch what you did and become better athletes and better people because of you!
Mark
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