Taylor-Brown aims for Olympic crown

She left it late, but Tameside triathlete Georgia Taylor-Brown will once again represent Team GB at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The 2020 world champion’s participation was in doubt after tearing her calf last summer, but a strong 6th-place finish at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Cagliari last month was enough to secure her spot in the squad.

The 30-year-old from Droylsden aims to go one better than her individual silver medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games, where a puncture on the final lap of the cycling leg hampered her chances.

However, she won gold in the mixed relay event, making her the country’s most successful female Olympic triathlete.

No stranger to adversity, she recovered from injury and illness in the weeks before her record-breaking efforts in Tokyo.

“In the past 2 years my life has changed so much,” Georgia posted on Instagram. “Injury and an operation, losing love and drive for my sport, going through personal heartbreak, disappointment on the race course, finding happiness and a new love, feeling excited about life and the future again, regaining my drive and passion for triathlon, and finally now, becoming an Olympian for the second time.

“This isn’t my X Factor sob story, it’s just my reality.”

Taylor-Brown, who was awarded an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours list, will join teammates Beth Potter and Kate Waugh in Paris.

Waugh controversially took the final Olympic spot after an unsuccessful appeal by a “disappointed, sad and angry” Sophie Coldwell, who finished three places ahead of her in Cagliari, in what British Triathlon called a ‘priority race’.