A sprint for the ages – the inside story of the dramatic finish at today’s Olympic mixed relay

In the end, contrary to the buzz that was going around the race site after the race, there wasn’t an appeal that moved the American team from Olympic bronze to silver in today’s mixed relay here in Paris. In fact, it wasn’t until just before the awards ceremony that the American team learned they had actually won the silver medal.

“The boys (Seth Rider and Morgan Pearson) were certain we got silver,” Taylor Spivey said after the race. “So they told them to look at the photo finish again.”

The World Triathlon officials didn’t need to be told – they were already on it, and reversed the initial call once the finish had been reviewed.

The end result?

“We are the happiest silver medal athletes in the history of the games,” Spivey laughed.

Redemption for Lindemann

The woman who won the dramatic sprint to the line, Germany’s Laura Lindemann, was in the lead group of women and potentially in the hunt for a medal when she, like so many of the women, fell victim to the slippery Paris roads.

“It (winning gold) was good redemption for the individual race because I crashed,” Lindemann said. “I thought ‘we have to do it in the relay, we had to do it right.’ The whole team worked perfectly, everyone on the team did things just right.”

Lindemann needs to add her name to that list – it was her incredible sprint that brought the team gold.

“I was afraid to look back because I knew it was really close,” she said.

In the end, it was easy to see that Lindemann was ahead to take the gold. It wasn’t that easy to pick silver.

Photo finish

After leading the way through so much of the final leg, Beth Potter found herself with some speedy company starting the run. That was thanks to Taylor Knibb’s incredible ride that saw her first bridge up to Lindemann, then bring the German along for the ride to the front.

“I was dying on the bike,” Lindemann said. “I was afraid – I know how strong she (Knibb) can ride. I was ready, but it was hard. I knew we would catch up to Beth, so it was worth it.”

“I think I could have tactically handled the bike a bit better,” Knibb said. I don’t know if I could have dropped Laura, but I think she was waiting for me.

“The run leg was tough, I think I was a bit tired from the bike,” Potter said. “I got a bit detached from the front, but I managed to get myself back for the last 200 m. I thought we might have had the silver.

“I’ve never been in a sprint finish before,” said Knibb. “That’s a new experience. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had to go from the start and play my cards. Those were my cards, and it was silver. It’s not gold, but it’s not that far off.”

“I just had to go,” Knibb continued. “You can’t really think. I could feel Beth in my periphery. I know that I don’t have that change of gears – I’m not super fast. That’s not a surpise to any one, I’m very diesel.”

In the end, diesel proved to be just fine. And we got to see one of the most exciting triathlon races ever.