American superstar Taylor Knibb has given the clearest indication yet that she will prioritise cycling over triathlon at the next Olympics.
It’s a home Games in Los Angeles in 2028 but it appears that Olympic-distance swim, bike and run is now pretty low on her priority list over the next four years.
She has carried all before her at middle-distance, recently being crowned the first ever T100 world champion after a perfect four-out-of-four record in 2024 which was rounded off at the Grand Final in Dubai.
That all means she’s the #1 ranked female athlete and this week she bids for a third successive IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships crown.
‘I fell in love with the time trial’
And ahead of that race in Taupo she spoke to Bob Babbitt in a fascinating ‘Breakfast with Bob’ interview which is embedded below.
For any number of reasons what she said must be worrying for USA Triathlon after she powered their Mixed Relay team – and herself – to a second successive silver medal with a brilliant anchor leg in Paris.
Asked if she’ll stick around for LA, she replied: “I don’t want to commit either way. I’m very interested.”
But what she said next underlined her current thinking: “I fell in love with the time trial. It is the coolest event I think.
“And so a time trial in LA I am very excited about.
“But that I need to do a lot of work for and learn more. But just an event where it’s very much in your control – your effort, that’s fun.”
‘A federation supportive of your goals’
She then painted what appeared a contrasting picture – in her experience at least – between USA Cycling and USA Triathlon.
She added: “Being part of USA Cycling – it gave me hope that a national federation can really be supportive of your goals.
“Brendan Quirk [the CEO and President] and USA Cycling are just fantastic and super impressive.
“They rented a whole hotel in Paris and had a whole staff for all the food – and so everything was taken care of and dialled in. It was athlete performance first and athlete-centric.
“And it was just like this launching pad to performance – and you saw that in the results, I think they got six medals and a lot of golds.
“So I think it’s a fun time to be part of USA Cycling.”
‘Yes, I moved out of the village’
And that differed sharply with what happened next at the Games.
After a challenging road time trial where she fell – as did many others – on rain-sodden roads, her focus switched to triathlon.
But despite being one of the favourites she would only finish 19th, exactly the same position she’d managed in the time trial despite those multiple spills.
And she explained: “After the individual [triathlon] race I moved out of the village. And I had asked them before – like ‘I do not want to stay in the village, this will not help my performance’.
“And that was the only reason I raced well in the relay – because I moved out.
“[The village] is too loud, it’s too hot. There’s so many people. And I really like to shut off and like the quiet. That was one thing about the USA Cycling hotel, it was just so quiet.
“Like I can’t deal with all the extra noise, it just doesn’t work for me. Some people really get energy from that but it just drains me. I’m probably not supposed to say that but, yes, I moved out of the village.”
Spoilt for choice
And it sounds like there’s minimal appeal in going through another Olympic cycle for triathlon, especially with so many other options now on the table.
Knibb is arguably the most exciting talent in women’s triathlon but throw in her cycling prowess and it’s clear she has much to consider and balance out.
She added: “[In Olympic-distance] triathlon you have to have all the points to get onto the list. So in order to get there you probably have to have something like 18 good races. So do you want that?
“There are so many things that I’m interested in. I love the time trial. I love the T100. I love 70.3s. I love the Iron distances.
“So I think one of the things I learned this year is that you can’t fake excitement. And for me at least I get my best performances when I’m excited.
“One of the things Dan [Lorang, her coach] asked me after the individual race is what are you excited about in terms of the future. And that’s because it’s important and he understands that.”
Lorang of course is also the Head of Performance for the Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe pro cycling team who operate at the highest level of the sport, so perfectly placed to guide the next phase of Knibb’s stellar career.
