Jessica Learmonth (born 18 April 1988) is a British

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

. Learmonth is a European, Commonwealth, Olympic and World Triathlon Series medal winner based in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England where she trains at the Leeds Triathlon Centre. She won the European Triathlon Championship in 2017 and took silver in 2018. She competed in the women's event and the mixed relay at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, winning silver medals in both disciplines. Learmonth won silver in the 2019 World Triathlon Series. In 2021, Learmonth won the gold medal in the triathlon mixed relay at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo. She also finished second in the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series.

Early life

Learmonth won a National Championships freestyle medal whilst competing for the City of Leeds Swimming Club. She also played golf at Wetherby Golf Club and football for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Ladies Academy before switching to

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

Career

Learmonth's first year in triathlon was in 2012 and she was added to the World-Class Performance Squad in 2015. After just a couple of years of triathlon racing, Learmonth burst onto the Elite scene in 2016 with her first European Cup win. The 2017 triathlon season saw her win the ETU European title and secure two ITU World Triathlon Series podium finishes with a silver medal at ITU World Triathlon Stockholm and a bronze medal at ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Rotterdam. Learmonth represented Team England at the 2018 Gold Coast

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

, winning a silver medal in both the individual and mixed relay event at her first major multi-sport games. During the same year, she secured a European Championship silver medal at Glasgow and finished 5th overall in the

World Triathlon Series The World Triathlon Championship Series is an annual series of triathlon events organised by World Triathlon. The series is used to crown an annual world champion since 2008. Previously, the ITU (the former name of World Triathlon) world champio ...

. She enjoyed a number of successes in 2019 with a second-place finish at MS Amlin World Triathlon Bermuda and third-place finishes at AJ Bell World Triathlon Leeds and Groupe Copley World Triathlon Montreal. However, her greatest achievement of the year was a silver medal in the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final at Lausanne. Learmonth was also part of the British Mixed Relay teams that won silver in the 2019 ITU World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Tokyo. In 2020, Learmonth won the inaugural edition of Super League Triathlon Arena Games, held in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. She finished in 3rd place at Arena Games Triathlon London in 2022, finishing behind

Cassandre Beaugrand Cassandre Beaugrand (born 23 May 1997 in Livry-Gargan) is a French triathlete. She is the only female triathlete (and the second ever after male Alistair Brownlee) to have won a gold medal in the three major competitions, Triathlon at the Summ ...

and

Beth Potter Beth Potter (born 27 December 1991) is a Scottish triathlete and long distance runner. She competed for Great Britain in athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In 2019 she won the gold medal at the European Triathlon Championsh ...

. In 2021, Learmonth was part of the gold medal–winning triathlon mixed relay team, at the

in Tokyo. She also finished 2nd in the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series. Despite winning 3 of the 4 Championship Series races, her 4th place finish at the series finale in Malibu, was not enough to deny

Georgia Taylor-Brown Georgia Taylor-Brown (born 15 March 1994) is an English professional triathlete. Having won bronze in the 2018 and 2019 World Triathlon Series, Taylor-Brown won the one-off sprint triathlon race in Hamburg that constituted the 2020 World Triathl ...

the overall victory. Learmonth was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to triathlon.

References

External links

Jessica Learmonth
at British Triathlon * {{DEFAULTSORT:Learmonth, Jess 1988 births Living people Triathletes at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games silver medallists in triathlon Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Sportspeople from Leeds Athletes from Yorkshire European Championships (multi-sport event) silver medalists English female triathletes Sportspeople from North Yorkshire Olympic triathletes for Great Britain Triathletes at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in triathlon Sportspeople from Tadcaster Members of the Order of the British Empire Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games 21st-century English sportswomen