Taylor Knibb was part of the silver medal winning Team USA in the Mixed Relay at Tokyo 2020.  She’s no stranger to success, twice winning the Junior World Championships and being crowned U23 World Champion. She qualified for the Tokyo Olympics by winning WTCS Yokohama. And she really caught people’s attention with some phenomenal performances on her road bike with aero bars. First on her Ironman 70.3 debut in Boulder to qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships, and then again at the Collins Cup, where she beat Teresa Adam and the phenomenal Daniela Ryf. This athlete is going places!

You'll hear:  

06:45 What is Taylor doing in her bike sessions that nobody else is?

09:50 Why she is going to be changing her swim very soon

11:15 The influence of her mum, Leslie Knibb, who is a triathlon coach and successful age group triathlete. Taylor dropped her mum on the bike for the first time in 2012, as her mum was preparing for Kona!

15:40 Taylor talks about the first time Taylor broke away with Flora Duffy in a WTS race in 2017 'I was 19, it was very intimidating and she didn't say anything the whole ride'

19:35 About her training group in Boulder, under coach Ian O'Brien and why she spends a lot of time training with Jeanni Metzler.

21:00 About her Ironman 70.3 debut 'when I showed up to Boulder for Ironman 70.3 I had taped all of my gels to the top tube of my bike and apparently you don't do that in a 70.3 race. Apparently on the broadcast they were counting the gels I had taken because they could see the electric tape.'

27:20 I don't think I had expectations for this year. I was just focussing on one thing at a time, but the Olympics was the thing I wanted to do the best in, and I didn't so that has a bit of a dark cloud over it, but I was able to learn from it and I definitely don't want to make the same mistakes again. I am bummed about that. I don't want to make the same mistake twice.

30:20 Why she watches as much triathlon as she can 'I think I have watched every single World Championship Series race since 2009. I love watching the races I haven't been in and the ones I have been in and I think I learn more from watching them than racing them sometimes. I only learnt about triathlon in 2013 and I watched the races to learn about the sport as a whole. When I was a Junior I watched them to learn about the racing and now it's more about learning about my competitors and how the races pan out.

35:00 Her reaction when she found out she would be racing against Daniela Ryf and Teresa Adam at the Collins Cup. I had nothing to lose. But you can't say you're not scared lining up against Daniela Ryf, but it was also a huge honour lining up against her. "To be able to race her is so neat, I was just excited and grateful for the opportunity."

39:40 I felt bad for Daniela at the Collins Cup. I was just waiting for her to come past me. I went out way too hard on the bike and I wanted her to pass me because I wanted to see just how fast she goes, but hopefully some day that will happen. I still want to be better because I still made mistakes.

43:00 How she developed a competitive side with her brother when they were kids.

47:00 Why she is still trying to get better at switching off a bit and why it was easier to switch off from triathlon when she was University.

Also this week...

57:00 GB Paratriathlete Fran Brown talks us through her 4th place finish at the Tokyo Paralympics. "It wasn't quite what I had planned."

Find out more about this week's guests

Taylor Knibb Instagram

Fran Brown Instagram

Resilient Nutrition's Meet the nutter: Robert Herring performance coach

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