**UPDATE** Javier Gomez has pulled out of the race due to battling with a virus that started last week. Looks like we will have to wait until T100 Singapore in April to see this Rivalry continue...
Among the myriad storylines emerging from the T100 Miami race start lists and wildcard announcements last week, one matchup stands out as particularly thrilling. Two legends, two World Champions, and two old foes are gearing up to battle it out at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, facing off at a distance they've only competed against each other at once before.
The Past - 17 Years Ago, the Rivalry Began
Brownlee and Gomez have been in the thick of it since before many of us were even fans of the sport. According to the World Triathlon archives (thank you World Triathlon for keeping those) these two have been duking it out since the 2007 Salford BG Triathlon World Cup, where Gomez took first place and the five-year-younger Brownlee settled for 20th. Since then, they've crossed paths countless times, with Gomez clinching five World Triathlon Titles and Brownlee securing two of his own. Despite having fewer World Titles, Brownlee does hold two of the most coveted medals in the sport, with Olympic Gold in London and Rio.
After both finished off the podium at the 2008 Olympic Games in which Jan Frodeno took home the gold (Brownlee 12th and Gomez 4th), both of their eyes were fiercely set on that 2012 Olympics in London. It was back and forth in the WTCS in the years leading up with Brownlee taking the 2009 and 2011 titles while Gomez secured it in 2010. In the end, fueled by the home crowd's support, Brownlee produced a masterful performance, dominating the field with one of the most complete performances in triathlon history. Gomez, as good as his performance was too, would humbly have to settle for second. No one could have predicted at the time, however, that this would tragically be the last time we would ever see the two compete against each other at the Olympics. Gomez would have to drop out of the 2016 Olympics in Rio due to a bike crash leading into the race, while Brownlee would be unable to make the Great Britain team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to a poor lead-in thanks to an ankle injury. This has always left many to believe that the rivalry was unfinished - there was never a chance for Gomez to exact his revenge, or for Brownlee to further prove his dominance.
Until now.
The Present - A Rivalry Against Themselves.
Both athletes have no discernible weakness in any of the disciplines. However, as you probably already know, their greatest weakness lately has been against themselves and specifically, their not-so-twenty-year-old short-course racing bodies (how about that for putting it nicely?). Since transitioning to the longer distance side of racing, neither athlete has found themselves with a consistent set of races before getting injured. For that reason, most fans believe they are the outsiders to win the T100 Miami race. Consequently, Brownlee goes into the race ranked only 30th in the World Rankings, while Gomez sits at 268th, having only completed two of three possible races that can be scored in a given year.
Gomez was often seen as the more consistent of the two athletes, and rightly so, considering he often faced what must have felt like a two-against-one scenario with Alistair’s younger brother Jonny hot on his heels. Now nearing 41, Gomez has become no stranger to middle-distance racing, transitioning his short-course consistency to longer distances much earlier on than his British counterpart. Yet, despite his former resilience, injuries lately have often kept him sidelined, with most recently, a long stretch from January 2022 to September 2023 that robbed fans of many anticipated matchups, including one against the now-retired Jan Frodeno.
Yet, despite this heartache, since September, his form seems to be on the rebound, claiming victories at smaller races as well as at 70.3 Mossel Bay in November where he produced the fastest run split by two and a half minutes. Although, as his recent luck would have it, It hasn’t all been clear waters since his return. His last two races resulted in DNFs at 70.3 Tasmania and 70.3 Taupo, but mercifully, those weren’t related to an injury.
Brownlee, on the other hand, is often hailed as the premier single-day triathlete on the planet, possessing an uncanny ability to show up for just the right race in the most remarkable form. Nevertheless, Brownlee has yet to validate that claim in his recent three PTO races. In 2022, Brownlee led the PTO Canadian Open for the majority of the way in Edmonton, aiming to outclass the two Norwegians who had burst onto the long-course scene uninvited. Yet, after sprinting onto the run with a healthy lead, he was struck by painful stomach cramps, forcing him to jog home to 24th place. Then, at the PTO European Open last year, Brownlee seemed to have regained his full strength after an extended injury layoff, leading the race for much of the way until, again, it all unraveled during the run. Still, it resulted in a respectable sixth-place finish amongst the toughest competition on the planet, but it was agonizingly behind the two other Olympic gold medalists in the race, Jan Frodeno and Kristian Blummenfelt.
To make matters worse, following that race, he had to withdraw from the rest of the Championship-level races of the season due to requiring surgery on his ankle to remove a bone spur that was causing him repeated issues. Thankfully, like Gomez, he did return later in the 2023 season and delivered a few solid performances at three Challenge Family middle-distance races in quick succession. Unfortunately for him, thanks to some strong performances from young up-and-comers, none of them landed him on his much-preferred perch on the top step of the podium.
The Future - A Battle of Redemption
So then, how will they fare at T100 Miami? In a head-to-head showdown, who will reign supreme? The last time the two raced, coincidentally, was at the PTO Championships at Challenge Daytona. On that similarly fast Nascar course, Brownlee withdrew injured on the run after being in pole position and Gomez finished a disappointing 11th place despite a top-five swim and bike. Apart from that race, previous middle-distance battles tilt in Brownlee’s favor, with two second-place finishes at the 2018 and 2019 70.3 World Championships compared to Gomez’s third and seventh. Yet, Gomez seems to have been on the comeback trail for a while longer, but Brownlee appears to have had plenty of time to regain top form and put him in a similar position as the European Open last year. As mentioned earlier, Alistair has always been at the front entering the run but has always lost it on the run, oftentimes seeming to maintain a pace that isn't sustainable. On the other hand, Gomez appears to lack firepower on the bike but seldom falters in his run strategy.
When you look back and remember what these two have done, it is hard to believe anyone is betting against them. Even the likes of Kristian Blummenfelt himself is on record saying that he doesn’t believe they can win even a single race of the T100 when asked on an episode of The Triathlon Hour. Yet, the one thing we know for certain, thanks to their swim prowess, we will be seeing them feature at the front of this race. The real question then for Miami is… for how long?
They both have a lot of time to catch up on in recent years, and they’ll certainly be wanting to make it up on the race course. Furthermore, coming into the races as the underdogs might just be the last bit of fuel that they needed to light the course on fire. The one thing stopping them besides themselves? A new, hungry crop of the very best middle-distance phenoms…so they better not even be carrying a niggle.
