“The next couple of years, I want to be really competing as close to the front as I possibly can. As I get slower and older maybe more the managerial side. By that time, there should be no one more experienced than me.”
Old routines certainly still die hard. On the day we talk, Jonny has just got back from a morning swimming session with a group that includes Alistair. They would also be out into the Yorkshire Dales together later that afternoon. He hopes that their rather differing outlooks – Alistair from the no-nonsense school of Yorkshire thought and Jonny with a more ‘arm around the shoulder’ manner – has been a nice blend. “I’m there more as a mentor, someone where she needs a little bit of advice,” says Jonny. “We went for a run the other day and she said: ‘What was the pressure like in London 2012? Is it bad to be in a position where everyone is chasing me.’ And I said: ‘If someone told you two years ago you were going to be the favourite going into Paris, why would you not want that?’
“Alistair would be much more like: ‘Here’s your training. You have got me in your corner – that’s a massive advantage – now get on with it’.”
More than 65,000 people have now gone through their academy and there is also the intangible influence they have had not just on triathlon but whole communities of runners, swimmers and cyclists in Yorkshire. Tom Pidock and Max Burgin, for example, are just two people from different sports in Paris who Jonny knows well and has shared a track or a road with over the years.
“We want to have those young athletes come through, learn from us,” he says. And what advice would he give? “The simplicity of turning up, getting the training session done, day in, day out for months and years. It’s not turning up at individual sessions, smashing it out of the park and then not turning up for a week. Second one is enjoyment and being active. We started with walking holidays – or just riding your bike to the local cafe. It taught you to enjoy being active outside. Training has never been a job or chore to me.
“We were very fortunate with 2012 being a home Olympics. That was a real shop window for triathlon, obviously two brothers is a nice story, and we had to take the opportunity. It was good, good times. I’m incredibly proud of what I’ve achieved in Olympic racing. To walk away with three medals – one of each colour – is an absolute dream come true.”
