Taylor Knibb’s “New Team” is Nailing it in 2024 – and So Is She
Taylor Knibb at the 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship press conference in Taupo, New Zealand. Photo: Kevin Mackinnon
Even if she doesn’t take a third straight title this weekend at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship here in Taupo (and believe me, I am the last person who will say that doesn’t appear to be in the cards), it would be hard to argue that American Taylor Knibb hasn’t been the best triathlete of 2024.
She went unbeaten in her T100 appearances, which earned her the T100 World Championship. An incredibly gutty performance in the mixed relay in Paris helped net her American team a second-straight silver medal. She also won the US National Time Trial Championship and earned herself a spot on the US Olympic cycling team. She dominated IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, and is the prohibitive favorite for this weekend’s 70.3 worlds.
In addition to being one of the best athletes in the sport, Knibb is also extremely intelligent and insightful – as one would expect from any Cornell grad. So I understood when she bristled a bit with my first question of the interview about her approach going into this weekend’s race and dealing with the pressure of going after the three-peat. Yes, I knew that she had answered that very question in the press conference we were both at, but I was looking for more detail on the process of how athletes like Knibb are able to shut out all the “noise” leading up to a big event.
That’s when the concept of her “team” came up.
“I think it’s easy because I have a fully new team,” she said. “I just won a world title (the T100 Triathlon World Series) with Dan (Lorang) as my coach, so this would be our first 70.3 worlds together. If you knew all the changes that have gone on in my life since the last win in Lahti, Finland – it’s been a lot. So it’s just kind of a new outlook on life and I appreciate it.”
She had her first conversation with Dan Lorang, the super-coach who worked with Jan Frodeno and continues to coach Lucy Charles-Barclay and Anne Haug, after her fourth-place finish in Kona last year. Frodeno was set to retire, which meant that Lorang, who is the head coach of the Bora-Hansgrohe pro cycling team, had one spot opening in his coaching roster.
While Lorang heads up the coaching program, Knibb truly does have a team of coaches who cover the day to day work. There’s Lawrence Van Lingen, her running technique coach, Julie Dibens, who handles the swim training, and Erin Carson, her strength coach. She’s also working with a movement coach and a nutritionist, while Patrick Lemieux is her manager.
Lorang oversees all this, and, according to Knibb, there are no issues with the communication and collaboration between all the people involved in the process.
While Lorang had never worked with a swim coach who also coached triathletes, it wasn’t long before Knibb was seeing the real benefits Dibens’ experience as a 70.3 world champ (and the 70.3 worlds bike course record holder) brings to the mix.
“One of the greatest strengths that Julie brings to the team is understanding that if (for example) I did a run workout 60 minutes prior, it’s going to have an effect on my swim,” Knibb said. “She understands that and she doesn’t get worried. Actually, one day I told her ‘I’m really nervous for the swim you gave me,’ and she wrote me back ‘I’m more nervous about your bike workout.’ She understands. I think that … everyone understands what they need to do. We trust Dan, and he’s very smart and he’s proven himself – many, many, many times. So we just listened to the boss.”
“Dan is so efficient,” Knibb continued. “I do a lot more of my training alone now. I was having three-hour rides take five to six hours because there was a lot of ‘coaching,’ talking and waiting for other people. It was just a very inefficient system that I was a part of before.”
She cites, as an example, her swim sessions with Dibens – “We dive in at 9:00 AM … and she’s walking off the deck at 10:31. We do not mess around. You get the work done when it needs and it’s respectful of each other’s time, and that was something that I didn’t have before. I have a lot more time this year. I’m not doing less (training). I might be doing more, but I have a lot more time in my day because my team members are just a lot more respectful of that time.”
Despite her confidence in the “team,” Knibb was still surprised at how well she bounced back after being sick after the Olympics. After spending a week in bed, her first workout back was an easy hour spin on the bike. The next day all she could manage was a walk.
“By the time I flew to Ibiza (for the T100 event), I had like five decent weeks of training,” she said. “You kind of need six. After the race it took a bit longer to recover, which bleeds into the time to prepare for Vegas. Dan works his magic and I have no idea how he got me from where I was in August to where I was in Ibiza.”
Knibb did have to pass on the World Time Trial Championships in September, though – “I had to say no to that because I just wouldn’t be ready,” she said. That was likely not an easy call, since Knibb has really enjoyed her foray into elite cycling.
“My experience with USA Cycling was amazing,” she said.
With Lorang’s cycling expertise and the success Knibb enjoyed at the national championships (she crashed a number of times on the slick, water-logged Olympic TT), we shouldn’t be surprised to see Knibb compete in a few time trials next year. Add to that an appearance in Kona – last year she made it clear that she was racing on the Big Island in order to experience the event and be fully prepared for a return in 2025.
And, thanks to her impressive talent and the “team” that helps her excel, we shouldn’t be surprised to see her successfully defend her 70.3 world title this weekend, either.
I guess the one question one has to ask why did it take till something like September 2024 until she got a bike handling coach . One could argue if she had better bike handling skills and a better ability to read races she might be able to break packs in ITU.
overall I would rate Julie derron the best female athlete 2024 a with a Oly silver in individual race and podium at t 100 series.
I would say that counts higher than evidently being the best middle distance athlete but no result at solo Oly race
So knib is best middle distance athlete for sure but not overall.
As for this she needs a medal at individual event.
She was the best triathlete 2023
As she performed short, middle and Long curse.
It’s great to qualify in 2 sports but I guess the reality is medals at Oly games count . And relay medals count for the country but not really for the athelte they are like quarter medals. And ironman does not count then to get an invitation to world champs.
Thank you for the article, which includes some interesting detail.
Minor annoyance:
I do think it is very easy to argue that Taylor Knibb hasn’t been the best triathlete of 2024, and that’s even if you only consider women.
There is another lady, who has won Olympic gold and World Championship, having raced 3 out of 6 World Triathlon Championship Series races and won all of them. Yep, she got the perfect score and the toughest to win world championship and the most coveted gold medal in the sport out of 4 starts.
(Also added a win and two second places, and her 3rd place in the general classification of the notoriously competitive Supertri series).
Derron had ONE good OD result and it happened on the big day.
I wouldn’t rate her above Cassandra who was unbeaten all year, World Champion and Olympic Champion is outstanding.
Thanks for an interesting read!
(But agree with others here. Taylor has not been best triathlete of 2024. To me that is Cassandra. No contest, see posts above for results.)
I think when she changed coaches at the specific timing she did including adding Kona as her inside 1 year of Paris, I actually think she essentially punted away any “real” chance at a medal in the individual race in Paris. Paris was basically not really a course that was going to favor what she needed to do. She basically had to do 2 things which she’s not actually been able to do very often in ITU (on non-technical courses)
She can “beast mode” off the front when a few key heavy hitters sit out events, but when all the chips are down in ITU and when it’s a non-technical course, she’s way less of a favorite.
So I think when she added Kona, 70.3 races as her “race prep” (+ still doing WTCS races), and seemingly kept playing coy with the whole “mystery” of is she or isn’t she going to do the iTT + RR + individual + MTR, it was pretty clear the individual race wasn’t the “priority”. And again I think the race selection has way bigger impact on that decision than anything else (why she said hell no to a “boring and flat” parking lot race in Malibu/Long Beach for the LA Games) ESPECIALLY with her talent. Like ITU is literally a square peg into round hole in full fields vs what non-draft is for her specifically, when talking about medal favorites for Knibb vs rest of women, she’s def closer to “just off the podium” than podium favorite. Now the MTR is such a weapon because it’s basically an itt for many athletes because the groups get so small at times so 1 single “hero” leg can make a bigger difference and impact.
I think the biggest difference for her is going from an daily training environment that simply has the pros/cons of training with a “group” to essentially “online” coaching, where your training solo. You bet it’s more time efficient but if you asked her would this setup put her in a position of success in DL (she won 2 medals with the “old coach”, double 70.3 WC, a top 5 in 1st IM etc), I don’t think that she would say yes. There’s not many ITU athletes training “solo” while non-draft is built for solo and “efficiency” of time for the person. So I think this is the natural progression, and in non-draft you don’t necessarily need the “group” dynamics to play key parts in daily training (whether swim group or bike tactic workouts that have "detailed’ coaching parts to it).
I wonder what her plans are for 2025. Hope she goes all in for Kona. If that’s her plan, I can see her winning it. Hope she doesn’t get distracted by doing TT races, WTCS and T100 all in the next 12 months
I think it’s a foregone conclusion Kona will be in her plans. But I also don’t think she’s the type of athlete that is going to go Kona or bust and that be her only focus. Like she can probaly “train through” T100 type of events and still do stupidly well in that and win a bunch of money. I think it’s also pretty clear WTCS is now in the rear view mirror and rightfully so. She did her time, she won her medals, now it’s “her” time.
I am not sure but I think she said in a podcast this week that she wants to qualify for Kona which might not mean signing a T100 contract. She also said she will do 1 or 2 WTCS races, which I assume is to appease USAT
Think the ProTriNews one with Kyle Glass.
If she went all-in on Paris, odds are she still likely wouldn’t have won Paris, and also wouldn’t have the fortune and glory she has now. The fact that Cassandra wins gold and Knibb is being debated as the best of the year in this thread is proof she made the right call.
Knibb now has more gold and more glory than Cassandra. The fact that the Paris Olympic medals tarnished within days of receiving them is the perfect analogy. Olympic gold is obviously nearly impossible to achieve, but in this sport what Knibb has done and is on track to do is more important to her as an individual athlete.
True, the gold would likely have helped the sport in the USA marginally more, but the US gets so many medals and the public is so expecting of it that it wouldn’t have moved the needle much for the sport other than some money flowing to other athletes.
Taylor made the right call and time will show, if it hasn’t already that she is the best in the world at the version of triathlon that matters. She didn’t go all in the Olympics because she smartly calculated what would be best for her within the achievable goals.
Olympic distance is fast, it’s impressive, but it’s never going to be the sport because it lacks outsider interest and it barely registers on the sport’s main consistency outside of every clue years.
Just listening to the pod w/ her interview, kinda figures she wouldn’t “close” a door on any pathway (I don’t think she’ll be racing for usat in LA). She likely enjoys the challenge and/or the variety that IM to SC allows. My “guess” is that she’s going to start to focus more on the longer distances (duh Kona), likely still race enough T100’s to whatever their standard to qualify for the points even if she isn’t a full time “contracted” athlete. If the focus gets more and more IM training/racing she’s only naturally going to lose that top end speed needed for itu but if she races a few wtcs events, that will only help USAT if they ever want to use her ranking to then get more athletes in the senior level events. Add in that on USAT’s side, there is a large amount of senior gals leaving and/or not really going to factor in for LA and your sorta left with a slighly bare cupboard.
They need to do whatever they can to make sure she is available for the relay. Its ok if she doesnt race the individual, but I cannot see anyone in the pipeline(or in the world really) who would be a better relay member. Think she proved that this year coming from behind and almost winning against the best runners in the world, she is only going to get better…
Not to derail the thread, but this is why the Olympics needs a LC/Non-draft format. I understand the reasons why they don’t, but the current format really favours a certain type of athlete and their course selection doesn’t help.
It would even help the relay! Suddenly you could pull from either SC or LC as a National federation and you’d have more teams.
Unless rules change she would have to be selected for individual to be able to race the relay.