Two-time state high school wrestling champion. Four-time NCAA champion. Four-time world champion. Entrepreneur. Husband, father of three, role model.
And there's one more title Kyle Dake '13 would love to add to that long list: Olympic champion.
However, a gold medal won't be how he measures success when he takes to the mat in Paris at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. It's a lesson his late father, Doug - who was also his wrestling coach at Lansing (N.Y.) High - taught him many years ago.
"If I can wrestle the way I want to wrestle - score points, compete with courage, be thankful that I have the opportunity to go out there - then everything else will take care of itself," said Dake, who is 33. "A lot of times people just get focused on the winning, and that can just hold you back. I'm not attached to the outcome.
"I'm really enjoying the process of getting there, following the path that's been laid out and just doing it to the best of my ability," he said. "Dad always talked about that, too: Control what you can, and if you can't do anything about it, then don't worry about it."
Dake is one of five Cornellians who will be representing the United States in Paris at the Olympic Games. Other former Big Red student-athletes who'll compete include:
- Michael Grady '19 - men's four rowing (competing in his second Olympics);
- Taylor Knibb '20 - women's triathlon and cycling individual time trial (second Olympics);
- Sorin Koszyk '20 - men's double sculls rowing (first Olympics); and
- Rudy Winkler '17 - men's hammer throw, track and field (third Olympics).
Cornell athletes have won 63 Olympic medals, including 45 in the Summer Games (20 gold, 16 silver, nine bronze), since Lesley Ashburner, Class of 1906, won bronze in the men's 110-meter hurdles in St. Louis in 1904.
The Games kick off with opening ceremonies on July 26, and run through Aug. 11. In all, 114 past, present and future Ivy League athletes and coaches will compete in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Aug. 28-Sept. 8 in Paris). A total of 105 Olympic athletes, four Paralympians and five coaches make up the Ivy League contingent.
Dake - the only wrestler in NCAA history to win four national titles in four different weight classes - will be looking to add to the bronze medal he won in the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which were delayed until 2021 due to the pandemic. Freestyle wrestling is scheduled for Aug. 9-10.
He won this year's Olympic qualifier on April 20 in State College, Pennsylvania - where he, wife Megan and their three children have lived since October 2022 - but did so with a heavy heart following the death of his father just nine days earlier, after a short illness at age 62.
Since that time, Dake said, he's been able to process the profound loss, partly because he spent as much time as he could with his father in his final days. "We got to talk about anything and everything that I wanted to, so there was some closure for me there," he said.
A four-time Academic All-American at Cornell, Dake has branched out into the business world with the launch of Vitality Wellness Club, an elite fitness club he co-founded in State College with long-time friend and former college rival David Taylor. Both are members of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, which is what drew Dake to central Pennsylvania two years ago.
Dake said a large number of family and friends will be in Paris cheering him on, but for the athletes, the time for visiting is after the competition ends.
"You just don't want to get too caught up in the excitement of the Olympics," he said. "There's a lot going on, lots of storylines to follow, but it just ends up spending some of your energy. I'll just try to focus on the task at hand, and go do my job."
Michael Grady '19 rows with the men's heavyweight varsity eight in January 2018 on the Cayuga Lake Inlet. Grady is making his second trip to the Olympics, competing in the men's double sculls event in Paris.
Grady will be making his second trip to the Olympics, after his men's four crew placed fifth in 2021 in Tokyo. The 27-year-old said he and his three mates have been trending in a positive direction since the current crew was put together a year ago.
"We've been building since then - we got silver at the world championships last year (in Serbia), then got reselected for this year," said Grady, a native of Bradford Woods, Pennsylvania. "They (USRowing) thought we were trending in the right direction. Then we won World Rowing Cup II (in May in Switzerland), and most of the countries that will be at the Games were there, so it's a good sign."
The difference between making an Olympic debut, which he did in 2021, and returning to the Games is noticeable, Grady said.
"To go to my second Olympics, especially with the first one being the COVID Olympics, is going to be a completely different experience," he said. "The level of distractions, how many people will be there, actually having fans there, it's going to be interesting.
"And everyone in my boat walked away without a medal at the last Olympics," he said, "so we all have the same mindset and approach to this Olympics."
Olympic rowing will be held July 27 to Aug. 3. If Grady's boat advances to the finals, they will race on Aug. 1 at 6:10 a.m. Eastern time.
Knibb will be making some Cornell history when she lines up for the start of the women's cycling individual time trial on July 27. Having also qualified in her specialty, the triathlon, the 26-year-old is the first Cornellian to compete in multiple sports at the same Olympics since 1908, when Lee Talbott (tug-of-war, wrestling, track and field) represented the U.S. in London.
Taylor Knibb '20 runs on Cornell's Moakley Course in September 2019. Knibb will compete in both women's time-trial cycling and women's triathlon at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Winning the cycling qualifier, she said, was the result of a negotiation with her triathlon coach, Dan Lorang of Luxembourg, with whom she's worked since last November. An event she'd been scheduled to compete in was cancelled, and in looking for another triathlon, Knibb suggested instead racing at the USA Cycling Pro Road Championships.
She ended up stunning the cycling world by placing first.
"If you had talked to me March 14, two months before the time trial, I'd have said, 'No, I'm just focusing on the triathlon,'" the Washington, D.C., native said. "But it all came together, and I'm shocked."
Knibb, a three-sport athlete at Cornell (cross country, track and field, swimming), earned her spot on Team USA in the triathlon last September by placing fifth in the World Triathlon Olympic Games Test Event in Paris. In Tokyo three years ago, she won a silver medal in the triathlon mixed relay and placed 16th in the women's triathlon.
Like Dake, the result won't be Knibb's sole measure of success.
"It's both the journey and how you get there," she said. "If you can line up and say, 'I've done everything I can to be prepared, and regardless of what happens, I'm very satisfied with that,' then I think that's a win in and of itself."
The women's cycling individual time trial will be held July 27, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time; the triathlon will be held July 30, beginning at 2 a.m. Eastern.
Koszyk and Ben Davison, his men's doubles sculls partner, punched their ticket to Paris by winning the final at the 2024 World Rowing Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, on May 21 in Lucerne, Switzerland. A strong second half of the 2,000-meter race pushed the Americans to a 3.3-second victory over a duo from Serbia, which also qualified for the Games.
Sorin Koszyk '20 rows with the men's lightweight varsity eight in May 2018 on the Cayuga Lake Inlet. In his first Olympics, Koszyk will compete in the men's four rowing event in Paris.
"It was a big relief," said Koszyk, who along with Davison placed 13th at the 2023 World Championships last September in Belgrade, Serbia, and failed to earn an Olympic berth. "Just having all that pressure in the back of your mind all year, when we finally crossed the line and it was a done deal, I think that was just a lot of pressure just lifted."
A native of Grosse Point, Michigan, Koszyk, 26, was a two-time national champion at Cornell (2017, '19) as a member of the varsity lightweight eight. His senior season was cancelled due to the pandemic.
He now lives and trains in Oakland, California, as a member of the California Rowing Club.
In addition to competing, Koszyk said he's also looking forward to being in the Olympic Village and soaking in the atmosphere.
"I think it'll be good just to get the whole experience, being in the village and getting to see all the other athletes," he said. "I think you definitely will feel more like you're part of Team USA when you're actually over there with the rest of the athletes."
If Koszyk and Davison advance to the finals, they will race on Aug. 1 at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time.
Winkler, the American record holder in the hammer throw, earned his third trip to the Olympics by finishing second by 2 feet to Daniel Haugh at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, held last month in Eugene, Oregon.
Rudy Winkler '17 throws the hammer at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore. Winkler, who won the NCAA title that year and is the American record-holder in the event, is making his third trip to the Olympics.
Winkler, 29, logged a season's best throw of 78.89 meters (258 feet, 10 inches) on his fifth of six throws in the final.
"I did what I came to do, and I can't be happier," Winkler told FloTrack after the trials. "I'm on a really good trajectory; it's been a very strange season for me, with injuries and things, but it's the first week feeling healthy and I just want to keep that rolling going into Paris."
Winkler's training was slowed in the early spring by a nagging hip injury, and he said he'd been pain-free for only about two weeks before the trials. The Albany-area native admitted to some serious nerves as the finals competition unfolded.
"The first three rounds, my heart was in my throat," he said. "After my first throw, I just thought, 'I've just got to get top eight so I can get five more rounds,' and I thought the adrenaline would sort of alleviate after that. But it really didn't go away, and so I had a really hard time controlling things early in my throws.
"I have so much more in the tank in terms of distance," he said, "and I'm just going to keep climbing from here."
Winkler, a three-time first-team All-American at Cornell (2015-17), set the American record of 82.71m (271-4) at the 2021 Olympic Team Trials in Eugene. He eclipsed the previous record of 82.52m (270-9) set by Lance Deal in 1996 in Milan, Italy.
Track and field at the Olympics is scheduled for Aug. 1-11; most of the competition will be held at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, just north of Paris. The men's hammer throw will be contested Aug. 2 and 4.
