In his quest to define ‘sporting greatness’, double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee has spent nearly 4 years interviewing and training with some of the greatest minds in sport to discover what it takes to become – and remain – a champion.
Featuring:
Ian Botham • Mark Cavendish • Alastair Cook • Alex Danson • Richard Dunwoody • Donna Fraser • Chris Froome • Anna Hemmings • Denis Irwin • Michael Johnson • Kílian Jornet • Stuart Lancaster • AP McCoy • Ronnie O’Sullivan • Michael Owen • Adam Peaty • Ian Poulter • Paula Radcliffe • Ian Thorpe • Mark Webber • Shane Williams
From an early age Alistair Brownlee has been obsessed with being the very best, and not just improving his sporting performance across his three specialist triathlon disciplines of swimming, cycling and running, but also understanding how a winner becomes a dominant champion. Winning gold in consecutive Olympic Games has only strengthened this need and desire.
Over the last 4 years Alistair has been on a journey to learn from the best, talking to elite figures across multiple sports as well as leading thinkers and scientists, to understand what enabled these remarkable individuals to rise to the very top, and to push the limits of human capability in their relentless pursuit of perfection.
Alistair uses these fascinating interviews, along with extensive research, to explore a range of sports and environments – athletics, cycling, football, rugby, horseracing, hockey, cricket, golf, motor racing, snooker, swimming and ultra-running – to reveal how talent alone is never enough and how hard work, pain, pressure, stress, risk, focus, sacrifice, innovation, reinvention, passion, ruthlessness, luck, failure and even a lockdown can all play a crucial part in honing a winning mentality and achieving sustained success.
About the author
Alistair Brownlee, MBE won back-to-back gold medals at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, the only triathlete to have ever defended their title. He is a two-time world champion, a four-time European champion and the 2014 Commonwealth champion. The first triathlete to be nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, he came second in 2016 behind Wimbledon champion Andy Murray. He was the flag bearer for England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia and has been nominated as a candidate for the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commission. Having recently moved up to the longer form of triathlon, he has already won two Ironman events, setting a course record when winning in Western Australia, and has twice finished runner-up in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. He lives in Bramhope, West Yorkshire.
