Team USA Wins Silver In Triathlon’s Mixed Relay
by Peggy Shinn
PARIS — At the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the Team USA triathletes did not have individual performances of their dreams. In fact, each of them was devastated after their individual triathlons earlier this week.
But on a lovely morning in Paris in triathlon’s mixed relay, Taylor Knibb pulled the Americans into a three-way battle for the medals. In a photo finish, on the beautiful Beaux-Arts Pont Alexander III, Team USA claimed silver.
“It feels so incredible,” said Taylor Spivey, 33, who did the relay’s second leg. “All of us didn't have the best individual race. I don't know why. We just couldn't put it together. But we could put it together today, and we made it count. To walk away with the silver medal is really special.”
Knibb, 26, was still disappointed by how her Games played out — crashing four times in the cycling time trial and then finishing 19th in the individual triathlon. She called the mixed relay medal “a silver lining.”
It’s the same color that Knibb and Morgan Pearson, 30, won as part of the mixed relay at the Tokyo Games, where the mixed relay made its Olympic debut.
So what makes the U.S. so good at triathlon’s mixed relay?
First, an explanation of how the event works: Two men and two women per country competed in a 300-meter swim, 7-kilometer bike, and 1.8-kilometer run. At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the order was woman, man, woman, man; in Paris, man, woman, man, woman.
Seth Rider, a 27-year-old mixed relay specialist, led off the American team and touched Spivey 16 seconds off the lead. Spivey pulled the team into fifth, just 13 seconds out of gold. Pearson tagged Knibb in fifth, 21 seconds from gold but one second from a podium spot. Knibb exited the water in third place, then on the bike leg, caught the two triathletes ahead of her, Great Britain’s Beth Potter and Germany’s Laura Lindemann. Potter is the bronze medalist in the 2024 Olympic triathlon and 2016 Olympian in the 10,000-meter race on the track. Lindemann is a three-time Olympian.
In the run, Knibb pushed the pace at the front and was outsprinted by Lindemann at the line, giving the Germans the gold medal, and was in a photo-finish for the other two medals. The Americans were awarded the silver, Great Britain the bronze.
While Rider credited the American triathlete’s experience in the mixed relay — they have won several world championship medals in the event over the past eight years — Pearson gave the nod to a dose of Olympic spirit.
After his devastating finish in the individual triathlon, Pearson had a talk with his coach. He reminded Pearson that he is a team leader.
“He didn’t get mad at me, but he basically said, ‘You need to change your attitude around,’” explained Pearson. “I needed that.”
As team leader, Morgan had the four members of the relay watch the movie Miracle last night. The 2004 film depicts the U.S. hockey team beating the Soviet Union at the Olympic Winter Games Lake Placid 1980 — forever known as “The Miracle on Ice.”
It was a big ask during a busy Olympic Games to find time to watch a two-hour movie. But Rider, Spivey, and Knibb agreed and watched the film in a conference room in the Athlete Village as they ate dinner.
“This morning, on the way here on the bus, I heard Seth and Taylor Spivey quoting the movie,” said Pearson with a laugh. “I think it was good for us to come together in the Olympic spirit.”
“I mean, silly,” he added, “but that stuff brings you together.”
Pearson also credited the spirit and energy for the Olympic Games among fans at home.
“Draft legal triathlon is not a super popular sport in U.S., it's a niche sport of a niche sport,” he added. “But the Olympics, that's a huge thing in the U.S. So I think that that plays a major role. I think we all get up for it.”
Taylor Knibb Brought It Home
Then there was the U.S. team’s true weapon: Knibb as the team’s anchor. On the seven-kilometer bike leg, Knibb’s time of 10:08 was 23 seconds faster than Potter’s time and 12 seconds ahead of Lindemann’s. The American — who qualified for both the cycling time trial and the triathlon at the Paris Olympic Games — bridged up to Potter and Lindemann just after the halfway point in the bike.
At this point, the U.S. team knew they had a medal, they just did not yet know what color it would be.
“She's amazing,” said Rider, who first met Knibb at junior training camps.
“When we were like 13, I knew she was a beast on the bike,” he recalled. “I did some bike sessions with her when I was younger, and she almost dropped me. I was like, ‘Damn, this chick's good, she's legit.’”
Pearson also lauded Knibb, a multisport athlete who truly can do multiple sports.
“People don't understand how impressive of an athlete she is,” he said. “She qualified in the time trial and the triathlon. I don't think people understand how impressive that is.”
Pearson sometimes trains with Knibb back in Boulder, Colorado, and is motivated by her.
“When she qualified for the triathlon and cycling, it kind of pumped me up, like I need to do something cool, too,” he explained. “So I knew, if she was there, we'd have a chance for a medal.”
An award-winning freelance writer based in Vermont, Peggy Shinn is in Paris covering her eighth Olympic Games. She has contributed to TeamUSA.org since its inception in 2008.