Qualifying for the Olympics in one sport is hard enough, but a rare breed of athletes have been known to pursue two sports at the elite level. One such athlete is Colorado-based triathlete and cyclist Taylor Knibb.
The 26-year-old returning Olympian became the first American athlete to qualify in two sports for the Paris 2024 Olympics when she won the 2024 USA Cycling Time Trial National Championships in May. The victory earned her a trip to Paris, where she was already scheduled to compete in a triathlon.
She's now got a busy schedule ahead, with the Olympic time trial on July 27, the individual triathlon on July 31 and the mixed relay triathlon on August 5.
This gives her three chances to expand her trophy collection, which already contains a silver Olympic medal from her part in the triathlon mixed team relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
While still relatively unknown in the cycling world, Knibb is no stranger to world-class competition.
A star triathlete, Knibb is a two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion, an Olympic medalist, and a multi-time World Triathlon Championship Series medalist.
Knibb grew up in the triathlon world. Her mother, Leslie Knibb was an Ironman competitor, and Knibb herself started dabbling in triathlon at an early age and enjoyed a stellar junior and U23 career. She belongs to a select club of female triathletes who have won the Junior, U23 and Elite World Championships. In college, Knibb competed in Division 1 level Track and Field and swimming for Cornell University. In 2017, at the age of 19, Knibb became the youngest athlete ever to be selected for the U.S. national triathlon and again took that honour when she qualified for the Olympic team at Tokyo 2020.
Looking to take her talent to new arenas, Knibb joined the Trek-Segafredo cycling team (now Lidl-Trek) in 2023 as a way to ‘test herself at the highest level of professional cycling and learn all about the ways I can continue to improve and develop.’
She made her pro cycling debut at the 2023 U.S. National Road Racing Championships, where she finished fourth in the individual time trial behind Chloe Dygert, Lauren Stephens and Amber Neben.
Since then, Knibb has only grown in both cycling and triathlon. She has spent the last two seasons racking up a series of wins and podium finishes in both short-course and long-course triathlons. She is especially dominant in the bike leg of a triathlon and often out-bikes other formidable professional female triathletes.
She is currently ranked first in the world in the Professional Triathlete Organization rankings. In Paris, Knibb is favoured to win gold in the women's individual triathlon and play a big part in Team USA's medal candidacy in the mixed team relay.
On the cycling side, Knibb was originally also scheduled to compete in the Olympic road race. However, with a busy schedule as is, Knibb chose to bow out, and Kristen Faulkner was called up to take Knibb’s place.
Knibb's first race takes place the morning after the opening ceremonies. Follow along as she takes her chance to make history. See the Olympic cycling schedules and streaming services here.
Knibb’s schedule of Olympic events:
- July 27: Individual time trial
- July 31: Women’s individual triathlon
- August 5: Triathlon mixed team relay
