Georgia Taylor-Brown vows to make good on promise to Vincent Luis as middle-distance debut beckons

Georgia Taylor-Brown will make her middle-distance debut at IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain next month – keeping a promise to her partner Vincent Luis!

Taylor-Brown became the most decorated Olympic female athlete of all time after being part of the bronze medal-winning GB team in the Mixed Relay in Paris.

And since then the British superstar has gone on to win three successive supertri races, the first person to achieve that feat since a certain Luis.

First things first – Torremolinos

Chatting to TRI247 ahead of the WTCS Grand Final in Torremolinos, when it was put to her that she’s the most in-form athlete ahead of Saturday’s race she said: “It’s very different style of racing. I think, for me, I’ve always enjoyed doing the Super League and supertri. I love it because I’m definitely a racer and I like the aggressive side of things and fast paced, fast moving.

“So, yeah, I’m doing well in supertri, but it’s a little bit different when you’ve got to do a 10 kilometres on the run as opposed to just one mile. So we’ll see how it goes on Saturday.

“WTCS Weihai [when she was third] was obviously Olympic distance and I definitely faded the back end of the run. So I’m hoping that I’ll have a bit more in me now, a bit more training and hopefully I’ll last a little bit longer this time.”

While the overall WTCS title looks out of reach – with Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand, world champion Beth Potter, Lisa Tertsch and Emma Lombardi looking to have that between them – GTB is just relishing racing right now.

She told us: “I’m really enjoying it, which is really nice because usually this time of year you are like, I’m over it, I’m done. And obviously part of you wants to be done but I’m happy racing and training and travelling at the minute and I am really enjoying it.

“I think I’m just really happy to be in this headspace mentally compared to where I was last year and just not enjoying it and then getting injured. So it’s just completely different this year.”

And she also says she’s more chilled than ever after the Olympics, explaining: “Obviously the Olympic Games was different. I was super nervous because it’s the Olympic Games and I think anyone that tells you they’re not nervous is probably lying.

“But since then and because it wasn’t the Olympics I had hoped for [she was sixth in the individual], it’s kind of changed how I look at races now. I’m just relaxed. I’m sort of just at a point where I think, just enjoy it and there’s no point in getting too nervous about things. So Saturday is the last World Triathlon race this season so I’ll go and do whatever I can and give it my best.”

Bahrain beckons

But it’s certainly not the last race of her season. She’ll next go to Neom, in pole position to regain the overall supertri crown.

And then there’s the intriguing prospect of moving up in distance. Snippets on social media this week showed her working with renowned coach Matt Bottrill on a time trial bike set-up.

Asked about that and when we might see her on a TT bike in a race, she told us: “I am going to do one this year. The plan is to potentially do Bahrain 70.3. I mean, it’s not really a secret anymore, but hopefully I will do that race. I’ll be there with the team [Bahrain Victorious] anyway.

I promised myself last year and I promised Vince that I would do Bahrain.

“So I will not break my promise. I’m sticking to it. I’m not sure it’s going to be for me, but I will not break that promise!”

‘A lot of changes happening’

We’ve already seen short-distance stars excel when stepping up, Marten Van Riel’s T100 heroics being the latest example, and Georgia reckons the next year or two will see plenty more take the plunge.

She added: “I think obviously now is a good period to try out new things because we’ve got four years until the next Games. So even if people move out of the World Triathlon scene for a year or two, they can come back in and still collect points and qualify for LA. So now is a good period.

“I think you probably will see quite a few people moving over and trying the T100 sort of stuff because it is exciting, it’s different and I think, like you said, you’ve seen athletes from short course move over to long course and do really well.

“I know there’s quite a few people that are interested in moving over so I think next year will be a really, really different year. I think there’ll be a lot of changes happening so it’ll be quite exciting.”