This is what Olympic sport is all about.Just when we thought we had seen it all at Rio 2016, the Brownlee brothers rocked up for the triathlon and wrote their own script for the Olympic Games on Thursday.Not only did Alistair successfully defend his gold medal from London 2012 to become the first triathlete in the history of Olympic sport to achieve such a feat, younger brother Jonny secured a silver. That meant the Brownlees becoming the first brothers to win a gold-silver combo in the same Olympic event since 1960.It's an incredible feat, making history and rewriting it all in one afternoon's worth of competition. You don't witness that too often.That isn't the story here, though. What really strikes a chord is the family ties. It's quite the feat for two world-class sportsmen to emerge from the same family. And not only that, but in the same sport where they constantly push each other to success and set the bar for their rivals.The Brownlees are the stars of the triathlon and they showed up in Rio to prove it.The scenes inside the velodrome on Tuesday, when Laura Trott embraced fiancee Jason Kenny after his keirin success, was heartwarming. It tugged at the heartstrings as she cried when celebrating him crossing the finish line in first, yet the Brownlees have smashed that out of the Olympic Park. It's the picture of the pair, brothers in arms on their backs and completely exhausted just after passing the finishing line, that is going to resonate.Alistair had crossed the line to be crowned Olympic champion after 1:45:01 of racing, with Jonny just six seconds behind. The former had already fallen to his knees, draped in the union flag he had taken from a spectator, before lowering the rest of his body to the floor. Then Jonny joined him to celebrate.They lay there, drinking it in. Looking up at the clear blue skies above Rio, they embraced. The brothers had taken one and two at the Olympic Games. Their parents were in the crowd watching, just adding to the sense of occasion.It was like something from a Bruce Springsteen song, putting the romance into action. "Just one kiss from you my brother and we'll [run] until we fall," we can imagine Alistair and Jonny promising before they dart off into the sea at Copacabana Beach to get their race started.Even the weather had a hint of Springsteen about it. "Where the sun could break through the clouds and fall like a circle, like a circle of fire down on this hard land."Listening to The Boss, he creates worlds and narratives that seem unattainable. There's the sense of the American dream gone bad in songs such as Stolen Car and Racing in the Street, yet he equally creates a feeling of nostalgia that stirs the emotions.He speaks of good times, longing for the memories that will serve a generation. He remembers your sister "calling us home, across the open yard," and the glory days that define us all.Springsteen's songs feed the subconscious to create these emotions as we long for something tangible to define us. Ultimately it's the ideals of romance and comfort that fuel the desire.Few us of ever realise what he signs about and it's why we return to his music as a course of comfort. Hearing another voice share the same emotion puts the listener at ease. For the Brownlees, they are living those songs. Their blood is mixed and they're on the Olympic stage together acting it out.When we saw the Brownlees crashed out in Rio, it was a moment Springsteen could have created himself. It wasn't being played out with a sepia filter; it was more glorious technicolour with the high definition cameras and Rio sun the backdrop.But the moment was all there. It was laid bare for a global audience in the millions. It was two brothers sealing a bond that is unique the world over.Had it been two British athletes going through it all, it would have been exciting enough. That the pair have been doing this together since they can remember and share DNA is just incredible.It's the story of Rio 2016.
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