Kyle and Brent Pease -- Athletes, Champions, Brothers

Kyle and Brent Pease’s names exist in circles that are often equated with some of the most inspirational triathlon athletes the sport has ever seen. It’s easy to understand why – they’re the first push-assisted brother duo to compete in an Ironman World Championship. From Ironman Wisconsin to the Publix Half Marathon, Kyle and Brent are everything that comes to mind when you think of the word athlete.

When they aren’t racing, however, they’re first and foremost brothers. It’s easy to see, too -- Brent sits back with an easy smile, donning casual sporting gear and flip flops, perusing through his phone while adjusting the hat that sits atop his short-trimmed brown hair. Kyle’s smile is much the same, his hair cut to a similar length, attire close to identical. Like all brothers, there’s discussion over who mom’s favorite is. "Me," Kyle answers immediately, though the two eventually agree that they’re "all mom’s favorite." Atlanta natives, their favorite team is the Atlanta Falcons, who Kyle begrudgingly admits "aren’t doing too well."

Kyle lives with quadriplegia and spastic cerebral palsy, a motor disorder that affects a person’s movement, balance, and general muscle coordination. Kyle utilizes a wheelchair in his day-to-day life, and has been since childhood. When he races with Brent, the two are always a few feet apart, Brent helping to push Kyle as the two move as one.

Kyle -- as avid a competitor as any -- never once felt left out growing up. "Brent definitely had that older brother mentality. He would always take care of me and look out for me. But it was fun. Brent, Evan [Kyle’s twin brother] and I always hung out together, played sports, and traded a lot of baseball cards… we grew up on SportsCenter, we didn’t grow up on cartoons. It was fun. We always had a close bond."

Brent endeavored to always include Kyle in whatever athletic challenge the two came across, even through 2011 -- during what would become the two’s first triathlon together at St. Anthony’s Triathlon. "We were both very nervous," Brent reflected. "It was just a very intense environment, but it was also a part of the excitement in that we got to experience something like that… neither of us had ever really competed like that, but especially Kyle."

"I wanted more," Kyle said. "For the first time in my life, I felt like an athlete. And that was because both of my brothers were there."

It was that feeling that inspired Brent and Kyle to try and pass that feeling on to more people with Kyle’s experience. That same year, the two founded the Kyle Pease Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit aimed at improving the lives of people with physical disabilities through sports, providing necessary medical and adaptive sports equipment while also providing social networking opportunities for families with disabilities. Currently, the foundation is affiliated with 65 athletes and counting.

“One year, we hit 45 [athletes] and we were like, ‘Wow,’” Brent said. “And you look around and you see all these people, all these athletes in wheelchairs, you see all these volunteers… at that moment, it wasn’t about the two of us, or [fellow push-assisted athlete Bentley-Grace Hicks], or any one particular athlete, it was about the entire group that was a part of this inclusion movement. And people in Atlanta know the group, they see all of us, and that’s pretty powerful.”

“It’s not a community, it’s a family. We don’t just have friends, we have family, and that’s really special.”

In a way, Kyle and Brent’s bond has come to include everybody in the KPF. Even during their more personal accomplishments -- such as becoming the first push-assisted brother duo to compete in the Ironman World Championships in 2019 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii -- the two think to everybody they’ve met, in the community they’ve helped to build. “It doesn’t mean anything without this whole community,” Brent said. “One of the athletes that’s been racing with us for a long time sent us a text the night before that race, and he said, ‘When you’re in the World Championships, we’re all in the World Championships.’ And that was… it was moving, it was emotional, because while what we were doing in Hawaii was important to both of us, something that we had dreamed about for years, maybe even as kids wanting to compete like that, was something everybody felt connected to.”

“When I hear ‘first brothers to do it,’ what I hear is the first family.”

Even with the doubt along the way, Kyle found comfort and motivation in his community, and his love for his brother. "You do have moments of, 'why are we doing this?' and 'what are we doing it for?' And you realize you’re doing it for something bigger than yourself. It’s why we love this sport. It makes us stronger, and it makes us love each other more."

"Without me it doesn’t work, and without Brent it doesn’t work. So we have to depend on one another, we have to be there for each other. When one of us is down, the other pulls them up, and vice versa. I think the bond has grown a whole lot stronger."

To keep up with the Pease Brothers and for more information, visit the Kyle Pease Foundation website at https://www.kylepeasefoundation.org