Kate Knifton had dreams of getting away from Austin when she began to think about where she would go to college. She wound up in her backyard at the University of Texas. Nonetheless, she was determined to delineate a clear separation between home and school. She resorted to extreme measures, like not taking her laundry home to wash.
Now, Knifton’s headed far from home. After five years as a Longhorn, Knifton has achieved something most people only dream of doing: reaching the pinnacle of their sport. During the Paris 2024 Olympics, she will be competing in the Women’s Four rowing competition, as one of the youngest members of the U.S. rowing team at 24 years old.
“We knew that she’d be a contributor, but she really took off and developed into a superstar,” said Dave O’Neill, who coached Knifton at UT. He attributed her rise to the top of the sport to an extraordinary work ethic and competitive fire, but added that off the water she is one of the nicest people you’ll meet.
What makes an already unique experience all the more special, Knifton will be on the same team as fellow alum Daisy Mazzio-Manson. The pair competed together at UT during the 2020-2021 season, when Mazzio-Manson came to UT for her final year of collegiate competition. “We had a lot of restrictions where we weren’t really even spending time with teammates outside of practice that weren’t our roommates…. I wasn’t even rowing with Daisy probably until like the spring,” Knifton said of that season.
Eventually they did get on the water together, and before long, they were doing exactly what Mazzio-Manson told O’Neill she wanted to do at UT: kicking ass. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the team that featured two eventual Olympians won the 2021 NCAA National Championship.
“It’s really an interesting headspace that you’re occupying.” – Daisy Mazzio-Manson
Mazzio-Manson grew up in Massachusetts and earned a degree at Yale prior to coming to UT. Despite her one year in Austin being a bizarre one, she still fell in love with the city. “It was honestly a great place to be during COVID, because there’s so much outdoor stuff that I got to see a fair amount of the city,” she said, noting that she hardly saw campus with classes being held online. Mazzio-Manson and Knifton agreed that sunrise rows on Lady Bird Lake hold a special place in their hearts.
Rowing is in both Knifton and Mazzio-Manson’s blood. Knifton’s father owns Texas Rowing Center in Austin, and he trained to make the Olympic team in 1992. Mazzio-Manson’s mother made that 1992 Olympic team (and actually knew Knifton’s father from that time), and her father competed on the national team.
Following in their parents’ footsteps, both women set out to make the Olympic team, which culminated in a selection camp this spring. Knifton had spent so much time preparing for disappointment that when she learned that she had made the team, she didn’t quite know how to react. “It’s definitely hitting me more now that we’re actually leaving, but it kind of doesn’t feel real until you really go,” Knifton said.
Mazzio-Manson described the feeling of making the team as a “huge high,” but added that the weeks-long selection camp had left her exhausted. “It’s really an interesting headspace that you’re occupying,” she said.
In typical coach fashion, O’Neill – who has coached various U.S. national teams, including being on the coaching staff for the 2012 London Olympic team – noted that the shift from celebration to preparation is a quick one. “It’s like, ‘Oh man, I did it,’ but then it’s about the goal to go as fast as you can at the Olympics,” he said, while adding that having fun with the experience goes a long way.
So what does that experience look like? Training days leading up to the Olympics are pretty simple: breakfast, row, nap, physical therapy, more rowing, dinner, bedtime. Or as Mazzio-Manson put it: “It’s a lot of rowing and laying down.” When we spoke, their preparation went beyond the race, as they also pondered life in the Olympic Village. Knifton said she had heard tales of “mayhem” and “craziness.” Mazzio-Manson had fewer expectations, but was prepared for “beds made out of cardboard.”
As for the competition, O’Neill said Americans should feel good about having rowers like Knifton and Mazzio-Manson representing the country. The U.S. is looking to improve upon its seventh place finish in the Women’s Four in the last Olympics.
Knifton said the Olympics has always been a “fascination” for her. Same for Mazzio-Manson, whose northeast upbringing exposed her to one of the great Winter Olympics stories. “I definitely grew up watching Miracle on Ice,” Mazzio-Manson said, referencing Team USA’s legendary upset over the Soviet ice hockey team. “As you get older I think that changes in a lot of ways, but yeah, I feel like everybody as a kid wants to be in the Olympics.” The pair will see if they and their teammates can recapture the magic of Herb Brooks’ 1980 team when they take to the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on July 28 for their first race.
This article appears in July 26 • 2024.