--- title: Triathlete Helps Brother Over Finish Line: Alistair Brownlee description: When Alistair Brownlee found his brother struggling to finish the final leg of the World Triathlon Series,he immediately stopped to help. canonical: https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-20T17:43:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:44.974Z og:title: Triathlete Helps Collapsing Brother Over Finish Line og:description: "If anyone was in that position I would have helped them across the finish line" og:url: https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a0ce6def0a9c0/6988a6c60a4a225aad9cb56a/triathlon-brothers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TRIATHLON-MEXICO-ITU og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Triathlete Helps Collapsing Brother Over Finish Line twitter:description: "If anyone was in that position I would have helped them across the finish line" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a0ce6def0a9c0/6988a6c60a4a225aad9cb56a/triathlon-brothers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Triathlete Sacrifices Chance to Win By Helping Collapsing Brother Finish World Triathlon  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 20, 2016 5:43 PM UTC  British athlete Alistair Brownlee (L) helps his brother Jonathan Brownlee (R) before crossing the line in second and third place during the ITU World Triathlon Championships 2016 in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico on September 18, 2016. British athlete Alistair Brownlee (L) helps his brother Jonathan Brownlee (R) before crossing the line in second and third place during the ITU World Triathlon Championships 2016 in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico on September 18, 2016.ELIZABETH RUIZ/AFP/Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 20, 2016 5:43 PM UTC When British [triathlete](http://motto.time.com/4458187/iron-nun-nike-ad/) [Alistair Brownlee](http://time.com/4458255/rio-2016-olympics-triathlon/) rounded a corner to find his [brother](http://time.com/4150287/johnnie-walker-ad/) Jonny struggling to complete the final leg of Sunday’s World Triathlon Series race in Cozumel, Mexico, he immediately stopped to help. Sacrificing his chance to win, Alistair pulled his brother’s arm over his shoulder before hauling them both across the finish line, where Jonny collapsed. Jonny had been leading near the end of the 6.2-mile running portion of the race when he began to wobble and slowed to a walk, allowing South Africa’s Henri Schoeman to pass him. However, with the aid of Alistair, Jonny was still able to finish in second place. “Obviously, it was a quite good race,” Alistair told [NBC Sports](https://www.facebook.com/NBCSports/videos/1082737705114914/). “It was going almost perfectly and then I saw my brother wobbling in front of me, the very obvious signs of overheating and I knew I had to help him to the finish line. Obviously, for his position but also if anyone was in that position I would have helped them across the finish line to get medical help as quickly as possible.” Jonny was admitted to the hospital following the race, but has since joked about the moment on Twitter. “Normally when you have had too much to drink,” he wrote. “This time it was the opposite.” > [](https://twitter.com/jonny%5Fbrownlee/status/777723697822072833) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/"},"headline":"Triathlete Sacrifices Chance to Win By Helping Collapsing Brother Finish World Triathlon","datePublished":"2016-09-20T17:43:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:44.974Z","description":"\"If anyone was in that position I would have helped them across the finish line\"","url":"https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","Athletes","Human interest"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a0ce6def0a9c0/6988a6c60a4a225aad9cb56a/triathlon-brothers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt200a0ce6def0a9c0/6988a6c60a4a225aad9cb56a/triathlon-brothers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TRIATHLON-MEXICO-ITU","caption":"British athlete Alistair Brownlee (L) helps his brother Jonathan Brownlee (R) before crossing the line in second and third place during the ITU World Triathlon Championships 2016 in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico on September 18, 2016.","creditText":"ELIZABETH RUIZ/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4501073/triathlete-brother-alistair-jonny-brownlee/","name":"Triathlete Sacrifices Chance to Win By Helping Collapsing Brother Finish World Triathlon"}}]}] ```