American Taylor Knibb’s bid to pair an Ironman World Championship with her two Olympic triathlon medals ended with her sitting on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway with two miles left of the 140.6-mile endurance test.
Knibb watched as Solveig Løvseth passed her en route to becoming the first Norwegian woman to win an Ironman world title in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Løvseth’s feat came one month after Norwegians swept the podium at the men’s world championship in Nice, France.
Løvseth erased a 5-minute, 47-second deficit to Knibb at the start of the 26.2-mile run as the temperature hovered around 80 degrees.
She finished in an unofficial 8 hours, 28 minutes, 27 seconds after a 2.6-mile swim, 112-mile bike and the marathon run. Brit Kat Matthews charged late to cross 35 seconds behind in the second-closest finish in women’s Ironman World Championship history.
Earlier, Knibb traded the lead with 2023 champion Lucy Charles-Barclay of Britain during the bike and then in the opening miles of the run.
But then Charles-Barclay slowed to a walk multiple times. Knibb, fourth in her Ironman Kona debut in 2023, passed her for good around the half marathon point. Charles-Barclay dropped out in the 18th mile.
Six miles later, Knibb was struggling. She walked at an aid station, then stopped altogether. Løvseth ran past Knibb 45 seconds after the American took a seat on the pavement.
Knibb won Olympic silver medals in triathlon’s mixed-gender relay in Tokyo and in Paris. She also placed 16th and 19th in the individual Olympic triathlons, which are 32 miles.
She was bidding to become the second woman to pair an Olympic medal with an Ironman world title. Australian Michellie Jones took silver in triathlon’s Olympic debut in 2000 and then won in Kona in 2006.
Instead, Løvseth took the title four months after making her Ironman distance debut and one year after placing 48th out of 51 finishers at the Paris Olympics.
