Taylor Spivey Leads U.S. at 2026 WTCS Alghero as Taylor Knibb Returns to Short Course Racing

ALGHERO, Italy — Paris 2024 Olympic silver medalist Taylor Knibb (Boulder, Colo.) made her highly anticipated return to short-course, draft-legal triathlon on Saturday, May 30, at the 2026 World Triathlon Championship Series Alghero — the first event of the LA28 Olympic qualification cycle — finishing in 11th place. Her Paris 2024 Olympic Mixed Relay silver medalist teammate, Taylor Spivey (Redondo Beach, Calif.), led the USA TRI women on Saturday with an eighth-place finish.

In the men's race, Chase McQueen (Columbus, Ind.) paced the USA TRI men with a 23rd-place finish. 

The race in Italy was the first event of the LA28 Olympic qualification cycle, in which athletes begin accumulating Olympic quota points for their country. Read more about LA28 Olympic qualification here. 

Women's Race

Both Knibb and Spivey were among the first group out of the water in the 1,500-meter beach-entry swim at San Giovanni Beach, setting up a strong position heading into the 40-kilometer bike leg on the island of Sardinia.

On the bike, the lead group swelled to 22 athletes, with Knibb and Spivey riding at the front alongside the day's best. Great Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown — coming off a Spain T100 victory the week before — attempted a breakaway during the fifth lap, but the move couldn't hold. Knibb and Spivey came into T2 as part of the lead group, well positioned for the run.

Over the first half of the run, an elite group of five broke away from the field: Germany's Lisa Tertsch, Great Britain’s Beth Potter and Taylor-Brown, Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist Cassandre Beaugrand of France, and Jeanne Lehair of Luxembourg. Taylor-Brown was the first to crack as the pace intensified, and by the final lap, it was anyone's race.

With 300 meters to go, Beaugrand surged to the front and sprinted away to the victory in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 49 seconds. Potter out-kicked Tertsch in the closing meters to claim silver. Tertsch finished in third place, and Lehair placed fourth. 

Spivey placed eighth in 1:55:20, running a 35:07 10k just a week after earning her first career T100 podium in Pamplona, Spain. Spivey has now turned in three top-10 finishes in the 2026 World Triathlon Championship Series: fifth in Samarkand, eighth in Yokohama, and eighth in Alghero. 

For Knibb, her 11th-place result came just six weeks to the day after she finished second at IRONMAN Texas. Knibb has focused on middle and long-distance triathlon racing since her epic sprint finish in Paris secured Olympic silver for the U.S. in the Mixed Relay. 

Heading into the race in Alghero, Knibb said she looked forward to the high-octane, fast-paced nature of short-course, draft-legal racing. 

“I’m looking forward to the racing. It’s competitive and full on. It’s pure. I get to go for it vs. ‘be patient,’ like I have to be in an IRONMAN. Being allowed to go for it. To take risks,” Knibb said. 

Completing the U.S. women's contingent, Gina Sereno (Madison, Wis.) had the day’s 10th-fastest run to finish 19th; Danielle Orie (Orchard Park, N.Y.) placed 25th, and Kirsten Kasper (North Andover, Mass.) finished 29th after suffering a mechanical on her bike, which caused her to lose contact with the front bike pack. 

Men's Race

McQueen and Seth Rider (Germantown, Tenn.) were among the first athletes out of the water, and both settled into the lead pack on the bike, with Rider involved in a short breakaway attempt during the 40-kilometer ride.

The men's race was dramatically shaped by crashes on the technical Alghero bike course. Defending world champion Matthew Hauser (AUS), emerged from the swim at the front, alongside Dorian Coninx (FRA) and Alessio Crociani (ITA), with Vasco Vilaça (POR) and Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) also prominent in an initial lead pack of 10 that included USA’s Rider and McQueen. 

But chaos ensued on the bike, with Hauser crashing and a second bike crash pileup that took out several athletes. Hauser rode into T2 and did not attempt the run. Paris 2024 Olympic champion Alex Yee (GBR) narrowly avoided going down in the second bike crash, but he did not finish the run. 

On the run, Hidalgo set the pace for much of the 10k, with Vilaça locked on his shoulder. Vilaça pulled away on the final downhill to secure the win, his second of the 2026 World Triathlon Championship Series. Hidalgo finished second, and in a wild sprint for third, Ricardo Batista (POR) claimed bronze. 

McQueen placed 23rd and Rider 26th. Darr Smith (Atlanta, Ga.) rounded out the U.S. men in 43rd place. 

With the Olympic Games returning to U.S. soil in 2028 — and triathlon set to open the LA28 Olympic Games — fans can support these athletes' journeys through Elevate28, the USA Triathlon Foundation's most ambitious campaign yet. 

Because USA Triathlon receives no direct government funding, philanthropy fuels the world-class coaching, training environments, sport science, and international competition U.S. athletes rely on to compete and win on home soil. To join the movement, visit usatriathlon.org/foundation/elevate28.