Alistair Brownlee is racing again. The double Olympic triathlon champion has confirmed he’ll toe the start line at the Skipton Multisport Festival Sprint Triathlon on Sunday, 24 May — his first competitive appearance since retiring from professional triathlon in November 2024. There’s a catch, though, and it cuts both ways: for every relay team that beats him on the day, Brownlee will donate £10 to the Brownlee Foundation.
He announced the challenge himself, in a social media video posted earlier this month. The format is a 400m pool swim, 22km bike, and 5km run. Relay teams split those disciplines between three athletes. Brownlee does all of it alone — and he’s the target.
“What are you doing on Sunday, 24th of May? Well, you should be at Skipton as the TBF — The Brownlee Foundation’s event company — is hosting the Skipton Triathlon, and you have the chance to race me as a relay team. It will be great fun… [it is a sprint-distance event, with one person doing the swim, one on the bike and one on the run…] and while I have not been doing that much training, I am pretty confident, so for every team that beats me, I will donate £10 to the Brownlee Foundation. Good luck; get yourself enrolled, please come along. All profits go to the Brownlee Foundation, which helps young people experience triathlon for the first time.”
— Alistair Brownlee
The Course — Skipton Sprint Breakdown
The race is based at Aireville Park, Skipton. Athletes swim in Craven Swimming Pool — a 25m, 6-lane facility sitting adjacent to the park — before heading out of town for the bike leg and returning for a run circuit through Aireville Park itself. Flat and fast by Yorkshire standards, though the 22km bike route does push out into the surrounding countryside. No course records exist for this edition; TBF is running the event under new organisation.
The festival spans both days of the May bank holiday weekend. Saturday’s programme starts at 11am and includes sportive rides at 60km and 100km distances, trail runs, and an event village with food and entertainment. Sunday’s race day kicks off at 09:00 BST — adult sprint and supersprint triathlons, junior races as part of the Yorkshire Junior Series, and a junior sportive. The event is co-organised with Craven Energy Triathlon Club, Skipton Cycling Club, and Skipton Athletics Club.
The “Not Much Training” Caveat — Taken in Context
Don’t take that too literally. Since stepping away from professional triathlon, the 38-year-old has completed the Patagonman Xtri in December 2025, finished 13th in the mixed teams category at the Sellaronda Skimarathon in the Italian Dolomites in March — a 42km SkiMo pairs race with 2,700m of elevation, racing alongside former Polish mountain biker and IOC Athletes’ Commission member Maja Włoszczowska — and in April rode the Dales Divide, a 600km coast-to-coast bikepacking route, in approximately 34 hours and 51 minutes in tough conditions. He’s also been active in Brownlee Racing, the sibling-launched team operation.
What he hasn’t been doing is structured swim-bike-run training. That gap is real. Relay teams with a strong cyclist on the 22km bike leg — the discipline most likely to open a decisive split against a solo athlete already carrying swim fatigue — have a genuine shot at this.
The Foundation Behind the Race
TBF Events was set up as the mass-participation commercial arm of the Brownlee Foundation, with 100% of profits reinvested into the charity. In 2025, the foundation delivered 15 events with more than 14,000 children participating in free triathlons — bringing its total reach to over 80,000 young participants since launching in 2014. The Ripon Triathlon Festival, another TBF event, saw a 30% overall participation increase and a 29% rise in junior entries between 2024 and 2025. TBF Events raised approximately £30,000 for the foundation in 2025.
Ruth Astle, TBF Events director and Brownlee’s partner, spelled out the broader mission in January: “I will sit more on the commercial side of trying to get some sponsors in, trying to look at basically what else we can do to gain leverage from these events to try and get as much money going back into kids’ sports as possible.”
What’s Next for TBF Events
Skipton opens TBF’s 2026 calendar. After that comes the Ripon Triathlon Festival on 11–12 July at Ripon Racecourse, then the Helvellyn Triathlon on 6 September at Glenridding in the Lake District, and DirtFest UK on 3–4 October at Bramham Park. Entry for Skipton is open via TBF Events. Race day is Sunday, 24 May. The £10-per-team donation pot starts at zero.
Stay in the loop
Get the latest triathlete today updates delivered to your inbox.