Olympics Rio 2016: Perfect prep led to 1-2 finish, says Jonny Brownlee

Brownlee came second behind his brother Alistair, improving by one place on his bronze in London four years ago when his elder sibling also stood on top of the podium.

"We had the best preparations in the two months leading up to it that we possibly could have done," Jonny told Reuters.

The brothers went to a training base in St Moritz in Switzerland for five weeks and a holding camp in Brazil near Sao Paulo for two weeks before the Games.

"Then we stayed in the best hotel that we possibly could have done which was close to our race venue with the food that was provided perfect for what we wanted to eat, with nice beds and nice air conditioning, the little things like that," Jonny added.

"Whereas other nations didn't have that, they stayed in the village and had to come in on village transport on the morning of the race, and things like that make a big difference."

Alistair said he took great pride in the fact that triathlon was now one of the highlights of the Olympics after only joining the Games programme in 2000.

"You don't set out to break records or do things for your sport, you set out because you love racing and you love the sport, you love training hard and you love competing," the 28-year-old said.

"So that's what you do it for but that said I'm very proud of where triathlon has gone and I've been part of that in the last 10 years, from a sport that most people probably haven't heard of to now people have heard of it and are following it. It's been a fantastic progression."

Jonny, 26, was still upbeat after losing out to his big brother again, the pair executing a perfect tactical plan to dominate the race and break away from the field together on the final running stage.

"It means a lot, obviously I'd want to get a gold medal and become Olympic champion but I was beaten by the better person and the next best is silver," he said.

"To get gold and silver in an Olympic Games is very, very special, to upgrade obviously from bronze to silver and it was a good race.

"We took it on from the front and made it hard for the other athletes and it was a good performance," Jonny added.