U.S. Elite Triathlete Taylor Knibb Wins Time Trial at 2024 USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, Qualifies for U.S. Olympic Cycling Team
by USA Triathlon
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Today, U.S. elite triathlete Taylor Knibb (Boulder, Colo.) qualified for the U.S. Cycling Olympic Team with her victory at the Elite Women’s Time Trial at the 2024 USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, in Charleston, W.V. Knibb, who punched her ticket to Paris for Triathlon last August at the Paris Olympic Test Event, traveled to West Virginia by way of Japan where she earned Silver at the World Triathlon Championship Series Yokohama just four days prior. The Time Trial at the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championship served as an automatic selection event for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
"I'm in shock and so is my whole team. We just wanted to go out, give a good effort, and see — hopefully improving on last year. But it just all came together," Knibb said.
Knibb, whose fourth-place finish in her debut Time Trial at last year’s Nationals in Knoxville, Tenn., earned her the third to last start position of the day, one minute after newly minted Pan-American Games Champion Kristen Faulkner (Homer, Alaska). The two top ranked riders, and last to go off, were last year’s silver and bronze medalists at the event, Lauren Stephens (Mesquite, Texas), who recently won the Road Race at the Pan American Games and Amber Neben (Irvine, California), a three-time World Champion and three-time Olympian.
Knibb rolled down the start ramp and onto her first of two laps of the 10.3-mile course. When Knibb cruised through the intermediate time check at the end of lap 1, she was ahead of eventual silver medalist, Faulkner, by less than 1 second. Over the course of the next 10.3 miles, Knibb would increase that gap to 11 seconds to clinch the Gold Medal and the automatic nomination to the 2024 U.S. Cycling Olympic Team in a time of 41:54.69. Neben would go on to earn the final spot on the podium finishing 49 seconds behind Knibb. You can view the Elite Women’s full results here.
“Taylor is one of the most unique and talented athletes we have ever seen,” said Scott Schnitzpahn, General Manager of High Performance for USA Triathlon. “It’s rare to have an athlete who is able to race both short-course, draft-legal triathlon on the World Triathlon Championship Series circuit and long-course IRONMAN triathlons. To have an athlete who not only can do that, but is also so versatile that she qualifies for the Olympics in two sports is a testament to not only how gifted Taylor is from an athletic standpoint, but even more so, her relentless work ethic, mindset, and drive.”
The women’s individual time trial race at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is July 27. The women’s individual triathlon event is July 30, while the triathlon mixed relay is Aug. 5. A Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Knibb won Olympic silver as a member of the mixed relay team, while placing 16th in the individual race.
Missing from the start list on Wednedsay was the reigning National Champion in both the Time Trial and Race, Chloe Dygert. Dygert, whose Time Trial victory at the 2023 UCI World Championships punched her ticket to her third Olympic Games, opted to not make the trek back to the U.S. to stay in Europe to train towards bigger goals this summer. Dygert, has been a prolific cyclist since she burst on the scene in 2015 winning both the Time Trial and UCI at Junior Road World Championships and making her first Olympic Team in 2016 as part of the Silver medal team pursuit. Dygert holds the World Record in the Individual Pursuit and has a combined nine Elite World Championship Gold Medals on the track and road and earned her second Olympic medal in Tokyo.
Following her Elite Women’s Time Trial National Championship title, Knibb now returns to her triathlon season May 25 at the World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari, the final WTCS race before the Olympic Games.
About USA Triathlon
USA Triathlon is proud to serve as the National Governing Body for triathlon, as well as duathlon, aquathlon, aquabike, winter triathlon, off-road triathlon, paratriathlon, and indoor and virtual multisport events in the United States. Founded in 1982, USA Triathlon sanctions more than 3,500 events and races and connects with and supports more than 300,000 unique active members each year, making it the largest multisport organization in the world. In addition to its work at the grassroots level with athletes, coaches, and race directors — as well as the USA Triathlon Foundation — USA Triathlon provides leadership and support to elite athletes competing at international events, including World Triathlon World Championships, Pan American Games and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.