Taylor Spivey's 10th Place Leads U.S. Olympic Women at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Share:
by USA Triathlon
PARIS — In her Olympic debut, U.S. Elite Triathlete Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.) placed 10th at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 women's triathlon event on Wednesday, July 31, leading the U.S. Olympic women.
The 33-year-old who swam collegiately at NCAA Division I California Polytechnic State University, completed the Olympic-distance triathlon through the heart of Paris in 1 hour, 57 minutes, 11 seconds.
Her U.S. teammate Taylor Knibb (Washington, D.C.) finished 19th in her second Olympic Games in 1:58:37, while Kirsten Kasper (North Andover, Mass.) finished 49th in a time of 2:06:38, overcoming bike crashes and bike mechanicals in her Olympic Games debut.
The race took place in the heart of Paris, with the start, finish and transition area located at the famous Pont Alexandre III bridge. Athletes swam 1,500 meters in the River Seine, biked a seven-loop, draft-legal 40-kilometer bike course featuring the famous cobbles of the Champs-Elysees, and ran a 10k through the Paris city streets.
Home country hero Cassandre Beaugrand won gold, running away from silver medalist Julie Derron of Switzerland in the final kilometer to take the Olympic title in a time of 1:54:55. Great Britain's Beth Potter won bronze.
Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Flora Duffy of Bermuda took control of the swim early, building a 3-second gap after the first lap. She'd go on to exit the Seine with a swim time of 22:05. Kasper was 34 seconds back in ninth, with Spivey 38 seconds back in 12th. Knibb was 2 minutes back exiting the water.
A hard-charging Duffy led the first lap of the bike on a breakaway solo, but the chase pack featuring Spivey, Kasper, Beaugrand, Potter, Derron, France's Emma Lombardi, Maya Kingma of the Netherlands and Great Britain Olympic medalist Georgia Taylor-Brown reeled in Duffy by the end of lap two.
The majority of that group remained in the lead throughout the bike on the cobbles, which were slippery from the morning rain.
Unfortunately for Kasper, the slick roads contributed to two bike crashes and a bike malfunction, ending her Olympic medal chances early in the race.
Knibb — who raced earlier in the Olympics in the individual time trial — did everything she could on the bike to bridge the gap to about 1 minute behind the lead group. But that is as close as the group could get after seven loops on the bike.
"No excuses, I didn’t have a good swim. That’s part of the sport and so I had to keep working, and worked way too hard on the bike," said Knibb, who has now finished 19th and 16th in her two individual triathlon races at the Olympics. She won an Olympic silver medal in the Mixed Relay at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
On the run, the quartet of Beaugrand, Potter, Derron and Lombardi quickly established themselves as the lead group.
Derron pulled away and led for much of the run until Beaugrand pulled away late, running the day's fastest 10k in 32:42 to win gold in front of the raucous home crowd.
Spivey clocked a 34:57 10k to secure a 10th-place finish in her debut Olympic Games.
Coming on Monday: Triathlon Mixed Relay
The Triathlon Mixed Relay will take place on Monday, Aug. 5 at 8 a.m. local time in Paris (2 a.m. ET). The final four-person mixed relay team (two men, two women) will not be determined until race morning but will come from among those athletes competing in the individual events. The race will be broadcast live on USA Network and Peacock. The U.S. Mixed Relay team won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Media Opportunities from Paris
Media can contact Stephen Meyers at stephen.meyers@usatriathlon.org or 1-970-778-7743 (or via the same number on WhatsApp) to request interviews with individual athletes and to be added to the distribution list.
Olympic Games Paris 2024 — Women's Triathlon
1,500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run — Complete Results
- Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) 1:54:55
- Julie Derron (SUI) 1:55:01
- Beth Potter (GBR) 1:55:10
U.S. Finishers
10. Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.), 1:57:11
19. Taylor Knibb (Washington, D.C.), 1:58:37
49. Kirsten Kasper (North Andover, Mass.), 2:06:38
