Double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee is motivated to give back the support he received as a young athlete after being named to lead Team GB into the 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games.
Brownlee will take on the role of Chef de Mission for Team GB’s Youth Olympic Games campaign in Dakar, Senegal, the first IOC event to be held in Africa, with athletes between the ages of 15-to-18-years-old set to represent GB.
The 38-year-old was honoured to be named and is motivated to make a difference for young athletes; some of whom won’t be much younger than the West Yorkshireman was when he debuted at Beijing 2008.
Brownlee said: “My role as Chef de Mission is a privilege and an incredible opportunity to inspire the next generation of young athletes - and that is such an important role.
“You've got so much at stake because it's their dreams, their careers and their health all rolled into one incredible opportunity.
“I felt that in my career, the people that had the biggest impact on me were the mentors I met as a young person.
“That's when you're developing the most, and I think you've got the biggest capacity to improve as an athlete.
“The Youth Olympic Games are so special because there is perhaps nothing else where over 10,000 young people, from every country on the planet, all live under the same roof.”
Brownlee’s triathlon career, in which he claimed four ITU Triathlon World Championships gold medals, was crowned with two Olympic gold medals in back-to-back Games.
His triathlon victories on home soil in London 2012, and at Rio de Janeiro 2016, cemented his historic legacy as the only triathlete to win two Olympic golds in the individual event.
“On the day the London 2012 games were confirmed, I was 17 years old, and I remember very clearly walking down a school corridor at Bradford Grammar School,” he said.
“A teacher caught me and said, ‘you've seen that London have won the bid?’
"I remember thinking, ‘that's amazing but it's irrelevant to me because I'll never be there’. I was in Beijing just three years later.
“To win at a home Olympic Games, standing on the podium with your brother, is phenomenally rare. That was a very special experience, at probably the best point in my career.
“My memories of Rio de Janeiro are actually enjoying the build-up, standing on Copacabana Beach and getting ready to dive in.”
Alistair, older brother to three-time Olympic medallist and Tokyo 2020 champion Jonny, now follows in the footsteps of curling gold medallist Eve Muirhead, who was also appointed Chef de Mission after her retirement.
Muirhead led Team GB at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea, before taking the reins of the senior team that competed at Milano Cortina 2026.
Ahead of his young squad’s journey to Dakar, for the event that starts on 31 October and ends on 13 November, Brownlee revealed what he had learned from Muirhead's trailblazing route.
Read more: Eve Muirhead's Diary of a Chef: Part Six
Brownlee said: “I know Eve relatively well, and we've actually talked quite a bit about the role for a few years.
“I spent a bit of time with her when she first led Team GB in Gangwon, she shared some of her experiences and we've chatted often since.
“She's done an amazing, and an inspiring job, both as a leader and communicator. There's certainly a lot I can learn from her.
“I think athletes have so much to offer in their post-sporting careers, and I am incredibly excited by the opportunities retired athletes like me have been afforded.
"As an athlete you just turn up, sleep somewhere nice, eat, perform and go home. But to see what goes on in the background powered by Team GB is unbelievable.”
Sportsbeat 2026