Jonny Brownlee called it a “proud day” as he collected his MBE from the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.
Last year in Tokyo he completed the full set of Olympic medals, adding gold in the Mixed Team Relay to individual bronze (London 2012) and silver (Rio 2016).
It was the first time the Mixed Relay had been included in the Olympic Games, and the British quartet – Brownlee, Jess Learmonth, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Alex Yee – were all awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List for their services to triathlon.
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“What an honour,” posted Brownlee on Instagram after receiving his award, reiterating his desire to continue to Paris 2024 and be “genuinely competitive”.
And he demonstrated exactly that earlier this month over the Olympic distance with a second place to Yee at WTCS Cagliari in a British one-two.
It marked a significant point in his comeback after being caught up in a bad bike crash at WTCS Leeds in June which led to him missing the Commonwealth Games.
Brownlee said after the Cagliari race: “I felt confident on the bike the whole way though. I’m back to being able to ride my bike after the crash in Leeds. It’s taken me months to get a bit of confidence back and I was enjoying it, I was actually really enjoying the bike.”
He added: “I can’t remember the last time I was on a World Series podium. It’s nice to be back.”
Next up for Brownlee is Super League Triathlon’s ‘Grand Finale’ in Neom on 29 October.
