{"id":799669,"date":"2026-10-12T00:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T00:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799669\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T00:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T00:58:11","slug":"ironman-kona-taylor-knibb-wins-redemptive-world-title-after-leader-hits-the-wall-in-final-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/799669\/","title":{"rendered":"Ironman Kona: Taylor Knibb wins redemptive world title after leader hits the wall in final mile"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, U.S. Olympian Taylor Knibb, struggling in 80-degree heat, helplessly sat on the Queen Ka\u2019ahumanu Highway as Norwegian Solveig L\u00f8vseth passed her with two miles left to win the 140.6-mile Ironman Kona triathlon title.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the roles reversed. L\u00f8vseth, having overtaken Knibb with five miles left of the iconic endurance race, began wobbling on Palani Road, just one mile from the finish of the closing marathon run, following a 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike.<\/p>\n

L\u00f8vseth came to a stop with seven tenths of a mile to go \u2014 after more than eight hours of racing on Hawaii\u2019s Big Island.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ironman<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ironman Kona World Championship results from Oct. 10, 2026.<\/p>\n

Knibb reclaimed the lead, and minutes later recorded a redemptive victory \u2014 just the second for an American in Kailua-Kona in 24 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stunned,\u201d she said. \u201cThe amount of times on the course where I\u2019m just like, I\u2019m done, this is awful. But then, somehow, we keep coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knibb is the first American to pair an Olympic medal with a Kona title. She won silver medals in the (much shorter) Olympic triathlon\u2019s mixed-gender relay in Tokyo and Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to learn from last year,\u201d Knibb said. \u201cIt was just like get to the finish line, get to the finish line, get to the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually ready to just not come about two weeks ago. Dramatic, I know. But I\u2019m just like, oh, this is way too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knibb first came to Kona at age 12 in 2010 to see her mom, Leslie, finish 11th in the 40-to-45 age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember standing on Ali\u2018i Drive drive watching the helicopter following the race leader,\u201d Knibb said<\/a>. \u201cIn my family we call it chasing the helicopter. That\u2019s what I wanted one day, to be the athlete underneath it, chasing it, leading the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knibb entered her first triathlon at age 11 (a 30-minute race), inspired by her mom. <\/p>\n

She matriculated at Cornell \u2014 just like mom \u2014 where she ran and swam. In 2021, she became the youngest American to race an Olympic triathlon (32 miles), placing 16th.<\/p>\n

Knibb won her first Half Ironman (70.3 miles) world title in 2022, then placed fourth in her 140.6-mile debut in Kona in 2023. She returned to the Olympic distance in 2024, finishing 19th individually in Paris.<\/p>\n

Knibb also won the U.S. road cycling time trial title in 2024, earning an Olympic spot in that event. She was 19th in Paris, crashing four times in the rain but becoming the first American since 1988 to compete in two sports with different international governing bodies at one Summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s heat stroke in Kona, Knibb spoke with eight-time Ironman world champion Paula Newby-Fraser, who famously hit the wall with less than half a mile to the finish in 1995<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newby-Fraser\u2019s advice: Take care of yourself to get to the finish line.<\/p>\n

This year, Knibb raced everything from short course, 16-mile triathlons (winning a World Cup in July) to claiming a fourth Half Ironman world title. Eight days after prevailing over 70.3 miles, in Nice, France, she was the top American woman in the World Road Cycling Championships time trial in 13th place in Montreal. <\/p>\n

Three weeks later, she wins Ironman Kona.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I\u2019ll be back chasing that helicopter again,\u201d Knibb said after the 2025 race in Kona. \u201cOne day I\u2019ll make it to the top of Palani again. And this time I\u2019ll finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironman Kona men\u2019s race: Vincent Luis caps career<\/p>\n

Vincent Luis of France won the men\u2019s title in an unofficial 7:47:27 in both his Ironman World Championship debut and what he said going in would be his last race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt really good; the last three months I prepared, and I was like, this is the last time I have to commit that hard for a race,\u201d said Luis, a 37-year-old who won Olympic mixed relay bronze in Tokyo. \u201cI said if I win maybe I will (continue), but I went through some dark places in the last three or four (kilometers). 100% worth it, but let\u2019s see. I have a few nights out to decide what I\u2019ll do with my life now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He overtook a struggling Magnus Ditlev of Denmark with just under five miles left in nearly the same spot where L\u00f8vseth later passed Knibb.<\/p>\n

Luis trailed Ditlev by 5:34 going into the run. He still trailed Ditlev by 3:31 with 7.7 miles left, but that\u2019s when Ditlev began intermittently walking.<\/p>\n

Luis then held off 2022 Ironman champion Gustav Iden of Norway by 95 seconds for the victory. Iden served a three-minute time penalty for drafting on the bike.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2028<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The women\u2019s triathlon will be the first medal event of the 2028 LA Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year ago, U.S. Olympian Taylor Knibb, struggling in 80-degree heat, helplessly sat on the Queen Ka\u2019ahumanu Highway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-799669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}