Triathlon GOATs: Is US phenom Taylor Knibb ALREADY in the conversation?

Daniela Ryf and Jan Frodeno are considered by many to be the greatest of all time (GOAT) when it comes to long-course triathlon.

Swiss superstar Ryf is a five-time IRONMAN World Champion and five-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. She dominated the sport in incredible fashion between 2014-2019 before securing her fifth full-distance crown in 2022.

German legend Frodeno, meanwhile, claimed a quartet of IRONMAN World Championships, a pair of 70.3 World crowns and was the Olympic Champion in 2008. Both are now retired with their places in triathlon history assured.

However, in the latest the latest Triathlon Hour podcast, host Jack Kelly added a third name to the GOAT conversation – none other than current US superstar Taylor Knibb. But what did Taylor make of that lofty comparison?

Knibb unbeatable at middle distance

Knibb of course claimed her third consecutive IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship crown in 2024 and was undefeated in six races across the year. Her performances earned her the PTO #1 World Ranking spot at the end of the year and also the crown of T100 World Champion.

Dating back to October 2022, the US superstar has 10 wins from 10 races over middle distance. She has earned over 100 PTO points in each of her last five outings, although she was quick to praise her fellow competitors for helping up her scores.

“I think it’s easier to achieve a higher score on the women’s side because our rankings are getting higher,” she argued.

“We keep pushing them up so our SOF (strength of field) gets higher every race – so it’s raising the scores every time.”

The 26-year-old also defended the T100 Tour in relation to PTO World Rankings. She pointed out that it is possible to reach world number one without success in the PTO’s flagship series.

“I want to give the T100 a bit of defence mechanism as people say its just this self-fulfilling prophecy. I think the two highest PTO scores of the year will be Laura Philipp at the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice (102.71) and mine at 70.3 Worlds (102.82).

“Which means if you were me at 70.3 Worlds, you won Nice like Laura did and you had a race like I did at Oceanside 70.3, you could be ranked number one in the world without competing in the PTO T100 – that needs to be noted.”

Does Taylor think she’s GOAT worthy?

After a scintillating 12 months, it is hard to argue that Knibb has the potential to one day go down in history as one of the greatest ever to toe the line. Kelly says she’s already there as one of the three GOATs alongside Ryf and Frodeno.

Taylor though believes there is plenty still to accomplish before that is a credible argument – notably a victory in one specific race.

“I don’t think I can be in that conversation until I win an IRONMAN World Championship. That’s the pinnacle of long course in our sport,” she said

“I think Daniela (Ryf) in her peak was probably more dominant. I don’t know if she’d beat me, I don’t know if I’d beat her, but I feel Daniela had a lot of strengths. She would win the IRONMAN World Championship and 70.3 Worlds in one year – and that’s huge.

“I don’t think 70.3 Worlds is respected at the same level. I still think people revere the IRONMAN World Championship – there is a certain respect to that and I haven’t done that.”