Crowd left stunned as athlete sacrifices sure-shot victory to help exhausted brother across the finish line

The Brownlee brothers are two athletes from Yorkshire, sset to conquer the world of triathlon. From time and time again, they have displayed a sportsman’s leadership and more than that, gestures of brotherly love. During one match, just minutes before the finish line, while Jonathan was running a race, his feet suddenly started to trip. He felt dazed, disoriented, dehydrated and exhausted from heat. Just then, his brother Alistair Brownleee rushed to offer his shoulder of support. Alistair gave up the chance to win the race to help his younger sibling in a dramatic end to the World Triathlon Series in Cozumel, Mexico.

Jonny was leading regularly heading into the final kilometre of the 10 kilometres run but then the heat exhusted him and he started to stumble off the track. Jonny stopped at the sideway track, just when Alistair put his arm around his brother and carried him along the final few hundred metres and then pushed him across the line. In the end, Jonny grabbed the final race of the season coming second in place after the Spaniard Mario Mola. At this time, Alistair could himself have won a race. But he instead decided to come to the aid of his brother by lending him his shoulder, shunning the chances of his victory yet inspiring sportsmen. As the Rio 2016 Olympics came to an end, both brothers collapsed on the ground. Later on, Jonathan tweeted from his hospital bed: “Not how I wanted to end the season, but gave it everything. Thanks Alistair Brownlee, your loyalty is incredible.”

However, there was a protest against this epic finish as Jonathan had seeked help to complete the race. An appeal was made by the Spanish Triathlon Federation to disqualify Jonny Brownlee for accepting assistance to get over the finish line. Fortunately, the appeal was rejected by the International Triathlon Union, who cited a rule which states athletes may accept help.

According to The Guardian, the winner Mola later said in an interview, “First of all this was not how I wanted to win the world championship. Luckily I was able to be in the top five considering Jonny didn’t win the race. To be honest I was already considering that the role of AIistair was to help Jonny. Considering that, I thought, well, I’m going to be second again, but at least I will fight to the end. And when I heard Jonny isn’t feeling well, I thought, ‘I need to fight to the end’. We want everyone to be safe after the finish line. It’s not the way I wanted it, but that’s triathlon.”

The brotherly gesture of Alistair not only helped Jonathan in the race but also inspired millions of budding sportsmen who learned what it truly means to be a sportsman. Human first, sportsman second!