Georgia Taylor-Brown exclusive: ‘I’m no one special. I just had a big, big dream and really stuck to it.’

Just days before the third of three epic championship-deciding encounters between Georgia Taylor-Brown and Flora Duffy, the British Olympic individual silver medallist posted a message on Instagram to the reigning champion to celebrate the rivalry that has become one of the greatest in triathlon history. 

“We haven’t raced each other loads this year but it’s been a fun battle and it’s come all the way down to the final race @floraduffy,” wrote Taylor-Brown in a post accompanied by an image of the two embracing each other at the finish line of one of the numerous races in which they have battled so hard against each other yet ended celebrating in each other’s arms. 

The first of the epic encounters in which they finished 1-2 was the individual Olympic final in Tokyo where Duffy raced to victory to become Bermuda’s first Olympic champion and Taylor-Brown won silver. Then history repeated itself at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as Taylor-Brown again finished second behind her fiercest rival. 

It’s easy to imagine a growing resentment rising in the belly of the fiercely competitive Taylor-Brown as she faced a third showdown with Duffy that would decide the title of 2022 World Champion. 

Yet after a race for the ages, in which they pushed each other right to the edge and an exhausted Taylor-Brown once again came home second, Duffy was there waiting for her at the finish line with open arms as the two embraced to congratulate and console one another.

“It was nice for her to be at the finish line to give me that hug I desperately needed,” Taylor-Brown reflected in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, three months after just missing out on the overall title for the 2022 season. “Huge respect to her for being there for me at that point, because obviously she was celebrating, but she knew how hard that was going to be for me.”

• Georgia Taylor-Brown exclusive part 1: 569 days later

Georgia Taylor-Brown: Re-assessing losses by looking back on your goals

The loss in Abu Dhabi was obviously a massive disappointment for Taylor-Brown, who seemed to suffer more in the sweltering 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) heat of the World Triathlon Championship Series season finale, which had turned into a winner-takes-all showdown between the Briton and the Olympic gold medallist. 

But even within such a high-stakes race, both she and Duffy had shown the Olympic #StrongerTogether spirit, after a mid-race incident saw the USA's Taylor Knibb and Netherlands Miya Kingma crash hard as they turned a tight corner on the bike ride while in the leading pack. 

“We just spoke between me and Flora and the other two in the [leading] group and said: ‘Just be careful, just look out for each other, we’ll just play it safe now, keep rolling through.’ And when we realised those two were back on the bike, we got back into the race,” Taylor-Brown explains.

After the initial heartbreak of losing the world title in the final race of the season, the dust has now settled and Taylor-Brown has a different perspective on a gruelling 2022 season that followed hot on the heels of an Olympic Games in which she won individual silver and mixed relay gold in Japan. 

“I sat down with my support team and my coach and we talked about the plans and goals we’d set out for the 2022 season and he said, ‘Becoming world champion was never one of your aims! That’s not what you went into the year to do. You went into the year to be a better swimmer, be more aggressive on the bike and just all around enjoy doing triathlon because it wasn’t a normal season after the Olympic Games.”

Those words enabled Taylor-Brown to “be proud of what I’ve achieved” after a season in which she “gave everything I possibly could”. And with less than a year-and-a-half to go until the next Olympic Games, she’s ready to go again - starting with the World Triathlon Championship Series opener that takes place from 3-4 March in Abu Dhabi.

Georgia Taylor-Brown and the Paris dream that's almost a reality 

For most triathletes, the next year will decide whether or not they get to fulfil their dreams of competing at Paris 2024. But for Taylor-Brown, those dreams are already well on their way to reality - even if it’s something she failed to realise at first. 

Last June, Great Britain finished second to France in the Mixed Relay World Championship in Montreal with the winners securing a spot at Paris 2024. However, with France already qualified as the host country, the result was enough to secure a spot for Britain at the upcoming Olympic Games. 

“I knew we had to win that event to be able to qualify so when I crossed the line in second I was like, ‘Oh no, we were so close, we didn’t qualify,” Taylor-Brown remembers. 

Only when her teammates reminded her that they had in fact booked a place in Paris was Taylor-Brown able to celebrate the opportunity GB now have to defend the mixed relay title they won at Tokyo 2020. 

“It’s just nice to have that pressure off now and know that as British Triathlon we can try out different things and different teams and see what works best.”

Having half a foot - provided she is selected - on a Paris-bound plane has Taylor-Brown “hyped” for what the next two years have in store for her. 

But she’s not leaving any stone unturned in her quest for Olympic glory. 

“I need to do every small thing possible to get on that start line in Paris and know that I’ve ticked every single box,” she says of the challenges that await her prior to the 2024 Olympics that include a Paris Test Event where she hopes to seal her qualification for the individual competition at the Games.

Georgia Taylor-Brown: A big talent who stuck to her biggest dreams

Taylor-Brown will be 30 by the time Paris 2024 comes around, but she only has to look over her shoulder at 35-year-old Duffy to know that as long as she’s physically competitive she can continue in the sport through the next Olympic Games and beyond. 

However, the Manchester-born athlete is crystal clear when she says doesn’t want to carry on just for the sake of it. 

“I want to keep doing it as long as my body allows me to do it, but also as long as my mind allows me to do it as well,” she explains. “I’ve always said that if I wake up and just hate triathlon, I’m not going to keep doing it because I’m good at it.”

As she reflects on what she’s achieved so far in a career that has seen her named World Champion in 2020, Olympic mixed relay gold medallist and individual silver medallist, it’s obvious that she still has the same passion and energy as the young version of herself who first took to triathlon just because she loved the sport. 

“I’m just a normal human being, I’m no one special,” she says. “I just had a big, big dream as a kid and I really stuck to that dream. And I truly believed in myself and found the best people to support me who also believed in that dream…

“There are quite a few things I’d like to be remembered for but essentially just someone that had a great time doing what they love doing.”