Between them they have four Olympic medals - two goals, a silver and a bronze - but they know that they’ll always be remembered for that incident in Mexico in September.
A few months ago, Britain’s Brownlee brothers caught the sporting world’s imagination near the finishing line at the World Triathlon Grand Final in Cozumel.
Jonny, at 26 the younger by two years, looked to be cruising on his way to the world championship title when his legs began to buckle.
Big brother Alistair caught up with him, threw his arm around him and dragged him to the end, flinging him over the finishing line ahead of him in second place to ensure maximum points.
The 2016 WTS season ends in a dramatic fashion. What. A. Year. #WTS2016 pic.twitter.com/nvqNrrI13D
— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) September 19, 2016
“One of the interesting things as an athlete is you want to get known for your results, so to get known for something like this is a bit weird really,” said double Olympic champion Alistair.
Jonny, winner of bronze at London 2012 and silver behind his brother in Rio this year, adds: “There are definitely big gaps in my memory from that day. I remember with 1km to go thinking ‘great, I’m going to be world champion’ and I remember with 500m to go ‘oops, maybe not - I can’t run in a straight line’.
"I only have two memories of the couple of minutes after that; one is of Alistair grabbing hold of me and telling me I’d messed up, but with a few swear words thrown in there, and then getting to the finish line and Alistair throwing me over it.
“My memory blacked out then so I can’t remember an awful lot of it.
“It’s really strange as an athlete to get more recognition for losing a race than winning a race. I’m going to be remembered as the guy who looks like a Thunderbirds puppet and can’t run straight rather than an Olympic silver medalist.”
The pair were speaking exclusively to RTÉ Sport on a quick trip to Dublin to help organise Friday’s kids’ triathlon at the National Aquatic Centre as part of their work with their Brownlee Foundation - a charity aimed at getting youngsters fit, active and living healthy lives.
The Brownlees, who live about a mile apart in the village of Bramhope in Yorkshire, not far from where they grew up, became the first siblings to win gold and silver in the same Olympic event at the same Games since the 60s.
We did it pic.twitter.com/GQRg5v5cKu
— Alistair Brownlee (@AliBrownleetri) August 18, 2016
They concentrate on, predictably enough, the Olympic distance event - a 1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run all done in comfortably under two hours.
Jonny’s Mexican mishap meant that he finished second in the final world championship standings for 2016 behind Spain’s Mario Mola.
He hasn’t raced or even trained hard since then and is awaiting results of medical tests taken earlier this week to find out whether or not he is finally over the event.
Now, whenever he goes outside the house he gets offered bottles of water by strangers in the street. “He’s heard that a few times!” laughed Alistair.
Jonny explains: “There were a couple of things going on. Firstly, it was incredibly hot, 35 degrees and very humid and as a pasty man from Yorkshire that’s just too much.
“Secondly, I had a bad stomach coming into that race and my body wasn’t processing fluids that well so I was always likely to get overheated and dehydrated. Then, thirdly, it was at the end of a long year.
“I had prepared for Rio and if you’re an Olympic medalist you’re a very busy man over the next few weeks so I didn’t have an awful lot of time to prepare properly for that race. The next time I’m preparing to race in something like that heat again, I’m definitely going to prepare properly.”
Not how I wanted to end the season, but gave it everything. Thanks @AliBrownleetri, your loyalty is incredible pic.twitter.com/6uG4QiIgfS
— Jonathan Brownlee (@jonny_brownlee) September 19, 2016
After another gruelling season the Brownlee boys have been taking it pretty easy the last few weeks, fulfilling commitments with their sponsors and the media while fitting in a bit of running, mountain biking and dinner with the likes of world-famous scientist Stephen Hawking.
A week’s training usually involves 35 hours of work, broken down as 35km in the pool, 500km on the bike and anywhere from 100km to 150km running along with regular gym and physio sessions.
Next year Alistair plans to ‘go long’ and try his hand at half and full ironman events - that’s 3.9km swimming, 180km bike and a full marathon run, eventually having a crack at the prestigious world championships in Kona, Hawaii.
He says he’ll make a call on his future in 2018 and is still undecided on whether or not he’ll go for a hat-trick of Olympic golds in Tokyo 2020.
Jonny plans to be in at the Japanese capital in four years time to complete his medal collection with a gold.
“A lot of people ask why we do it to ourselves and what I say is ‘if I can answer that I’m in the wrong game’," he said.
"I don’t really have an answer to that question, but I do know that I love it and that I’m a very competitive person.
“The other side of it is, if I’m not doing it Alistair will be so I have to do it!”
Asked about the hunger that drives him, Alistair says: “Any time I have doubted it, the first training session back when you dive in the pool or get out on the bike it’s just there. I love pushing myself and very quickly realise that it’s an innate thing that I do and I’d miss it if I wasn’t doing it.”
