Yahoo Finance Team GB's Georgia Taylor-Brown wins Olympic silver in the women's triathlon, despite bike puncture
Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown won silver in the women's triathlon at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Taylor-Brown recovered from a puncture in the bike leg that left her well adrift of the race leaders.
Twelve weeks ago, 27-year-old Georgia Taylor-Brown was on crutches with a stress response in her femur. A week before she flew out to Tokyo, she had to prove she was fit enough to compete; this morning, she made an incredible comeback, winning silver in the women's triathlon.
The race was far from smooth for Taylor-Brown, who suffered a puncture more than a kilometre from the finish of the bike ride. 'I didn't know what to do, so I just rode out on the flat. It was panic mode but it paid off', she told BBC Sport afterwards. Going into the run, she was more than 22 seconds behind the leading pack, which included British teammate Jessica Learmonth.
In an incredible run, Taylor-Brown passed her teammate to finish in second place, in a time of 1:56:50. The race was won by Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, who crossed the line in 1:55:36 to claim her country's first ever Olympic Games gold medal.
Talking to the press after the race, Taylor-Brown said, 'I got a stress response in my femur 12 weeks ago. So that was a bit of a shock.
'My training had gone so well before then, though, so I knew I had all that in the bag. I wanted to keep it private.
'You don't want to show your competitors your weaknesses, and so I did just say I was ill, but I've had six weeks of building my running back again.
'It's not perfect, it's not what I wanted. It's not what anyone would want, but I think I got myself into a really good position and I was as fit as I could have been on that start line today with the circumstances that I faced.'
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