Taylor Knibb ’20 played a pivotal role in securing Team USA’s silver medal in the triathlon mixed relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
On Monday, Aug. 5, Knibb delivered the fastest anchor leg split of the mixed triathlon final to push Team USA from fifth place to a photo-finish second.
The mixed relay format featured a sequence of two men and two women per country completing a 300-meter swim, seven-kilometer bike ride and 1.8-kilometer run. The order in Paris was set to man, woman, man, woman.
The U.S. team — comprised of Seth Rider, Taylor Spivey, Morgan Pearson and Knibb — clocked a total time of one hour, 25 minutes and 40 seconds. Khibb was just outsprinted by Germany’s Laura Lindemann and a photo-finish ahead of Great Britain’s Beth Potter.
Knibb exited the water in third place and caught up to her competitors during the bike segment. Her cycling time of 10:08 was 23 seconds ahead of Potter’s time and 12 seconds faster than Lindemann’s.
The win marks the second medal won by a Cornellian in the Paris 2024 Olympics following Michael Grady’s ’19 gold medal with the U.S. men’s four rowing team on Thursday, Aug. 1.
This silver medal adds to Knibb’s impressive resume, as she also won silver in the first Olympic Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Knibb, then 23 years old, became the youngest woman to ever compete in the Olympic triathlete for the U.S.
Knibb maintained a packed schedule throughout her time on the Hill, balancing swim team and cross-country practices while pursuing a degree in psychology. She used her trifecta of athletic talents to win the U23 World Triathlon in 2018.
She competed for the track and field and cross country teams for all four years she was at Cornell, winning multiple awards including the First-Team All-Ivy League for Cross Country in 2018 and 2019.
Khibb also competed for Cornell’s swim team in her senior year, clocking the 10th-fastest 1000-Yard Freestyle time (10:13.72) in Cornell history in her collegiate swimming debut against Columbia.
Yet in an October 2018 interview with The Sun, Knibb maintained that the one triathlon discipline she could not pursue through collegiate athletics — biking — was actually her strength.
So it makes sense that at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Knibb competed in both the cycling time trial and the triathlon, making her the only Team USA athlete to compete in two separate sports in Paris. She finished 19th in both of her individual events, with four crashes during a rainy cycling time trial.
Despite a disappointing result in her earlier events, Knibb’s strong efforts in the triathlon mixed relay ensured she would return home with a second Olympic medal added to her resume.