Georgia Taylor-Brown

Current SLT Series Champion, Georgia Taylor-Brown, needs little introduction to most fans of triathlon. The 29-year-old has battled her way through potentially career-ending injuries to the very pinnacle of the sport, culminating in being crowned World Champion in 2020, winning two Olympic medals and the 2021 and 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series’. The Manchester-born athlete grew up in a sporting family. Her dad, Darryl, was an 800m runner who represented Great Britain, while her mum, Beverley, was a national level swimmer and a club runner. Georgia has lived and trained in Leeds since moving there in 2012 to study Sports and Exercise Science at Leeds Beckett University.

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Georgia was a talented cross-country runner at school before being drafted into British Triathlon’s Olympic Development Squad. She had everything she needed for rapid development and seemed to be on the brink of a fast rise to stardom when she won the Junior World Duathlon Championships in Nancy in 2012. However, it would be another five years before she really hit the big time of elite-level triathlon as injuries threatened to derail a promising career before it had barely even begun.

Following the 2014 Junior World Championships, Georgia felt pain in the top of her foot, which was diagnosed as a stress fracture, which, despite careful management, got worse. After accepting the need for surgery and having two screws inserted into the bone, Georgia was on the road to recovery when she suffered another fracture. That paled into insignificance compared to the next chapter of woe. As she returned to running, she felt pain. It turned out a screw had come loose and was about to burst through her skin. After 16 months of frustration and pain, Georgia started to build again.

It didn’t take long for her determination and talent to rapidly propel her into the big time. In 2017 she took a first elite-level victory at the Madrid World Cup and followed it up with gold at the Under-23 European Championships and fourth at the Under-23 World Championships. Having won her way through to being a regular in Great Britain’s senior squad, she finished third in the WTS rankings in both 2018 and 2019 – the latter season seeing her finish in the top ten in every race and winning in her Leeds backyard – and began her career with Super League Triathlon with a fourth-place finish in Jersey in 2018. She reached the pinnacle of her game in 2020 when, in a one-off World Championship decider in a season curtailed by COVID-19, she took victory at Hamburg to be crowned World Champion.

Georgia starred at the Tokyo Olympics. She secured silver in the individual event, despite getting a flat tyre with 2km to go on the bike. She was then part of the Great Britain team that took gold in the Mixed Relay alongside Alex Yee, Jess Learmonth and Jonny Brownlee.

She followed that up with a stunningly consistent 2021 Championship Series, despite mishaps on the bike and an overturned DQ for incorrectly taking a Short Chute. Second place finishes to Jess Learmonth in London, Munich and Jersey, and to Flora Duffy in Malibu, saw her win the title. in 2022, Georgia has consolidated her place at the top of triathlon. She finished in third place in the inaugural esports triathlon World Championship, at Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift, and has enjoyed success on the World Triathlon circuit, in particular taking the win at WTCS Yokohama.

At the Birmingham Commonwealth Games Taylor-Brown finished second in the individual triathlon race, and was a key part of the England team that stormed to victory in the team relay event.

Georgia also hit world headlines in 2019 when she crossed the finish line hand in hand with friend and training partner Jess Learmonth in Tokyo. The pair were disqualified for their joint effort but gained notoriety for the bizarre incident.