by Winning an Olympic triathlon medal on the best day is hard enough; it is an achievement to do so in the conduct of another. For Georgia Taylor-Brown, her repeat mission in Paris this summer will be far from simple but, at home at least, it will be plain sailing compared to Tokyo.
Separating the personal from the professional is part of an athlete’s best toolkit, but four years ago she had to separate herself from a chaotic and challenging background. With her long-term partner, former Team Sky cyclist Josh Edmondson, suffering from severe depression, she was effectively a carer in emotional terms. It’s only now, as she looks forward to this year’s Games in a new relationship, that she feels able to talk about it.
“Josh was a cyclist and cycling is just another world. He has a lot of addiction problems. Drug use, alcoholism… there’s a lot of that,” she says. Edmondson admitted to injecting legal vitamin supplements and taking tramadol.
“It started pretty straight away when we got together. It would be good for a while, then it would be bad again. It was very up and down. Like any kind of addiction, it’s not a straight line. It’s not like you’re sober and that’s it. I would always be on my phone when I was away making sure he was okay.
“It was rough trying to deal with everything that was going on in my personal life and trying to keep it out of my professional life. But you get used to where you are, don’t you? I didn’t know anything else. I was in that relationship since I was 20, 21 and I knew it all. It was my first proper relationship.
“I just dealt with it myself. I don’t know why really. I guess I was afraid to talk about it because I didn’t really know what was happening. I thought we could work through it like couples do. But it got to a point where I couldn’t do it myself anymore and I had to get help. For him and for me too.”
The outside world only saw the story of the shiny Olympic gold for the mixed relay and the individual silver medal, but back home in Leeds the story was getting worse.
“The end of 2021, after the Olympics, was extremely difficult. I was celebrating this great success but Josh was going through a very difficult time. I wanted him to be proud and celebrate with me but he couldn’t,” she says.
“2022 went badly then. On the morning of the biggest races, I wouldn’t be in my room crying. I would leave my room, put on a smile and do my work – and I was still racing well – but it took a lot of me trying to hide that.”
It was an emotional vortex. When the weather came to Flora Duffy at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi to decide who would be that year’s world champion, she was running on empty.
“I wanted to be world champion so bad but I didn’t want to be there. My head was not in it. I had nothing left,” she says. She was beaten in second place.
‘I didn’t want to do a triathlon’
Unable to take any more, Taylor-Brown ended the relationship 15 months ago. After so much, it should be a release. Instead, she felt listless, numb, even as the new season dawned.
“That part of my life was gone and I thought I had recovered from it but I hadn’t. I had no motivation. I didn’t want to do a triathlon. I didn’t want to do much at all,” she says.
“Maybe it was just a promotion over the years where the emotion and everything was falling apart. I was on edge but I kept going and going and my body just kept saying, ‘No’.”
That was made all the more important last July when she tore her calf – a four-month season-ending injury. “I think my body was hurting my calf saying, ‘We’re shutting you down and you’re doing a complete reset’,” she says. “It made me realize how much things take out of you emotionally and psychologically. You think it’s straight in your head but, physically, it really takes a toll.
“Your body is very smart. If you’re not going to stop, he’ll tell you to stop.”
‘I can sleep at night much easier’
Time is the only great healer and Taylor-Brown is healthy again. By all means. She tells her story from a kitchen in Girona where she is training. The house belongs to her new partner, the French triathlete Vincent Luis. She is happy to be seen. And this time it’s not the beginning.
“It’s nice to be in a really loving and caring relationship, where I’m well looked after and feel safe. I can sleep at night much easier,” she said.
“It’s nice to be with someone who understands what I do, understands my dreams, respects them and is proud of me. This year is an Olympic year so we will be quite apart. As hard as that is, we both have our dreams and we drive each other forward.”
Paris 2024 is a shared goal for her. Taylor-Brown’s injury last season means she still has to qualify in May for the Games but, all things being equal, she will be there and aiming for the podium.
“That’s the dream. I feel very lucky to have managed to get two medals in Tokyo. I look at pictures now from the finish line and it gives me goosebumps thinking about those immediate feelings I got in the individual and team events. I want to bottle that feeling and be able to have it all the time. That’s part of what I’m trying to do – to get that feeling again.
“From such a young age, for me, it was always about the Olympics. It’s the pinnacle of all sports and I’m driving it towards it. It would be incredible to have my family and friends there too.”
Her only concern this time is the race itself, her old life consigned to the past.
“I haven’t heard anything from Josh. I don’t know what he’s doing but I hope he’s on an upward path and is healthier and happier,” she says.
“I was with him for eight years. He was someone I really loved and cared about and really thought I could help him move on with his life and get better. I thought I could cure it.
“It’s not like you can just turn all that off and forget you ever cared for them. I still think about him, I care about him and I hope he is doing well. That’s what I’ve always wanted for him.”
