Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States finishes the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running in front of the Les Invalides at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running in front of the Les Invalides at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Swimmers make their way through the Seine River during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States dives into the Seine River during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Swimmers make their way through the Seine River during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Kirsten Kasper of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Kirsten Kasper of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States finishes the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Swimmers make their way through the Seine River during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Swimmers make their way through the Seine River during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Fans look on as Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins gold and the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Taylor Spivey of the United States finishes the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
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Taylor Knibb of the United States competes during the women’s triathlon which consists of swimming, cycling and running at Pont Alexandre III during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
PARIS–Taylor Spivey woke up on a wet Wednesday morning expecting the Olympic Games triathlon scheduled for later in the morning to to be postponed after a night of thunder storms drenched the city.
Only a day earlier the men’s triathlon, scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back to Wednesday after water quality tests revealed unhealthy levels of bacteria in the River Seine, the result of the heavy rains that soaked Paris throughout the opening weekend of the Games.
Surely the run-off from the thunderstorms would force officials to push back both races, Spivey wasn’t alone in thinking.
Instead local officials citing water quality tests conducted 21 1/2 hours before the women’s race start time and before the overnight thunder storms decided both races would proceed Wednesday.
Despite its clean bill of health, danger still lurked in the waters of the Seine.
Team USA’s Taylor Knibb, the two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion, got lost in a chaotic start to the swim and never really recovered, finishing 19th in 1 hour, 58 minutes, 37 seconds.
“It was pretty horrible,” Knibb said. “I think I was last to the first buoy.”
Spivey, the Redondo Beach native, rode herself into medal contention after also struggling on the swim.
“I was just destroyed at the first buoy,” she said. “It really put me back for the rest of the race and I had to play catch up.”
Spivey was fourth off the bike but playing catch up finally caught up to her on the early stages of the run. She finished 10th, the top American, in 1:57:11.
“So I really wasn’t sure how my legs would feel getting off the bike and unfortunately they weren’t great,” Spivey said. “I thought maybe I could run my way into a medal but yeah, I just wasn’t feeling my best today.”
Spivey and Knibb will get another shot at making the Olympic podium in Monday’s mixed relay in which Team USA is considered a medal contender.
The women’s race was won by France’s Cassandre Beaugrand in 1:54.55.
Beaugrand has her own history of Olympic disappointment, failing to finish the Olympic triathlon three years ago in Tokyo.
“If you would have asked me even this morning I wouldn’t have believed it,” she said. “I threw up this morning right before the start. I was in a total panic. I kept telling myself, ‘Cass, you can’t repeat what happened in Tokyo’.
“But I told myself I’ve been doing triathlon for 15 years or more, it’s just another race and, finally, it’s nothing I don’t already know how to do. I took confidence in that and I just didn’t want to have any regrets at the end. I’m just happy to have got revenge on my past.”
Great Britain’s Alex Yee won the men’s race in 1:43.33 coming from behind in the final kilometer.
The race appeared to be over when Yee, 26, opened up a sizable lead in the early stages of the 10,000 meter run. Yee had been a world class runner before focusing on triathlon in his early 20s. But New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde caught and then passed Yee in the second kilometer. The Kiwi led by as much as 15 seconds and still held a 12-second lead with one lap remaining on a scenic route that crossed the Seine and passed several iconic landmarks.
Yee regained the lead with 600 meters to go and built a lead that stretched to six seconds at the finish.
Comebacks are something of a Yee specialty.
Yee suffered a broken ribs, a fractured vertebrae and a collapsed lung during a career-threatening bike crash in a 2017 World Cup race in Cagliari, Italy. It would take him nearly a year to return to competition.
Knibb and Spivey have also had to deal with crashes.
Knibb, 26, also qualified for the Olympic individual road cycling event Saturday. She was in medal contention early only to crash four times on a course slick from a steady rain. After one of her crashes, her mechanic also slipped and fell while trying to supply her with a working bike. Somehow Knibb finished 19th.
“It was an experience,” she said. “The first third was great. The middle one, that’s where it all went wrong. And then the third one it was more survival than anything else. I was fully blind, my Garmin fell off on the first one. I’m like, ‘Well, here we go!’”
Crash “number one, I went around the roundabout, I got up, went into the motorbike immediately. Is that one or two [crashes]? I went around on a turn, then I think I came down a fourth time, I guess, and then I changed my bike.”
Spivey crashed her bike during a 2014 training ride on a treacherous stretch of road in a land slide area on the Palos Verdes Peninsula not far the now condemned Wayfarers Chapel. She broke two bones in her hand and suffered a tendon injury in her knee. She couldn’t lift her foot up or walk forward. Gravel seeped out of her wounds for months.
Eight weeks later she was back in the pool.
Many in the sport felt Spivey should have been at the Tokyo Olympics. Spivey has been one of the world’s most consistent triathletes this decade, posting 18 World Triathlon Series Top 10 finishes since 2018.
Spivey finished fourth at a World Triathlon Series race in Yokohama in 2021, used as a U.S. Olympic qualifying event, missing the final automatic spot on Team USA for the Tokyo Games by one place. The third spot on the U.S. Olympic team would be decided by a selection committee that chose an out-of-form Katie Zaferes, the 2019 world champion, over Spivey, who was ranked No. 3 in the world at the time. In the same Yokohama race where Spivey was fourth, Zaferes finished 22nd. Zaferes was 18th in a World Triathlon Series race in Leeds that same year, 12 spots behind Spivey.
Spivey’s build-up to the Paris Games was undermined by two bouts of illness in the last two months.
She felt concerns about the Seine’s water quality were overstated.
“Honestly, the bigger concern of mine was the current,” Spivey said. “There was one point where I think we’re all swimming in place. And to me, that was a lot more scary.
“I definitely swallowed a lot of water. I was pushed under by maybe 10 people at that first buoy. So I hope I come out OK.”
