Justyn Knight (born 19 July 1996) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

long-distance Long distance or Long-distance may refer to: *Long-distance calling * Long-distance operator * Long-distance relationship * Long-distance train *Long-distance anchor pylon, see dead-end tower Footpaths * Long-distance trail *European long-d ...

track runner. A successful collegiate runner during his time at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

, he was the school's most-decorated distance runner in cross country and track. On the professional scene, he has represented his country at the

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

level, with his highest finish to date being seventh at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Running career

Youth

Knight was born and raised in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

to parents of

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

descent. His mother, Jennifer Knight, was born and raised in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and moved to Canada at the age of 13. His father, Anthony Knight, born in Canada to parents from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, was a basketball coach. He also has an older brother, Jaryd Knight, who plays volleyball. Knight took up distance running when he was a high school student in Toronto, starting in Grade 10. He attended

St. Michael's College School St. Michael's College School, (also known as St. Michael's, St. Mike's, and SMCS), is an independent, Catholic school for young men in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Basilian Fathers, it is the largest school of its kind in Canada ...

. Knight won the 2013 Ontario provincial senior cross country title at OFSAA cross country.

Collegiate

Knight was recruited by

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

in 2014. Knight placed 143rd overall at the 2014 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships, which he would later describe as motivation for improvement, stating "I remember races I've lost in great detail. I try to understand why I lost and how I can do better." Knight placed fourth overall at the 2015 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships. At the 2015 NCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Knight placed sixth in the 5000 meters, earning his first

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n honours in track and field in his NCAA collegiate career. At the 2016 NCAA DI Indoor Track & Field Championships, Knight finished in third place in the

3000 meters The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

final round. He was the runner-up at the

2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships The 2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships were the 78th NCAA Men's Division I Cross Country Championship and the 36th NCAA Women's Division I Cross Country Championship to determine the national champions of men's and women's NCAA Div ...

behind

Patrick Tiernan Patrick Tiernan (born 11 September 1994) is an Australian long-distance runner. While competing for Vilanova University, he won the 2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. He has represented Australia in several global competitions, ...

and earned

status in Cross Country. On October 27, 2017, Knight won the individual ACC championship, and Syracuse won the ACC team title for the fifth straight year. Knight headed into his final

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

outdoor campaign representing Syracuse with three NCAA titles, two individual, from the cross country and indoor track season, and one team from leading the Orange to the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Championship. At the

2018 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships The 2018 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships was the 54th NCAA Men's Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships and the 37th NCAA Women's Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadi ...

, Knight finished in second place in the

final round and won the

5000 meters The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stand ...

final to earn his first

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

track title.

Professional

Knight had made his

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

debut at the

2017 World Championships in Athletics Seventeen or 17 may refer to: * 17 (number), the natural number following 16 and preceding 18 * one of the years 17 BC, AD 17, 1917, 2017 Literature Magazines * ''Seventeen'' (American magazine), an American magazine * ''Seventeen'' (Japane ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

while still a student at Syracuse. He made the event final and placed ninth overall in the

5000 m The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stand ...

. He had said he was "happy but not satisfied" with this finish, and in the future would need to expect more from himself. Upon graduation to the professional ranks, Knight signed a sponsorship deal with

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

's Boston Track Club. He won a bronze medal in the

2018 NACAC Championships The 2018 North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships was a regional track and field competition held at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, Canada, from August 10–12, 2018. It was the third edition of a senior track and field championshi ...

, but by 2019 was struggling with the transition to the professional scene, as it required him to spend more time away from friends and family. This led to a decline in his physical fitness, and upon arriving to compete at the 2019

New Balance Indoor Grand Prix The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, formerly known as the Boston Indoor Games, is an annual indoor track and field meet which is held in late January or early February at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center. It was first held in Roxbury, a n ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, he was twenty pounds overweight. His time in the men's mile was 4:03.34, his worst-ever result at that distance in a competitive race, which he deemed "a huge turning point" as he resolved never to have such a poor result again. He retained his competition bib with notes on his time and placement as motivation. Knight considered himself to still be out of top shape when he arrived at the

2019 World Athletics Championships The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships () was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held betw ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

later that year and finished tenth in the

. Having missed the Olympic standard for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

by 1.36 seconds in 2016, Knight entered 2020 focused on securing a place at the

. He won the gold medal at the

Millrose Games The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet (track and field) held each February in New York City. They started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011 ...

in February in the 3000 m distance. The onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

resulted in the Games being delayed by a full year, and made training for elite athletics more challenging, as he had to work without teammates from March to October 2020 and could not see his family. In 2021, Knight returned to competition at the

2021 Diamond League The 2021 Diamond League, also known as the 2021 Wanda Diamond League for sponsorship reasons, is the twelfth season of the Diamond League, annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by World Athletics. The 2021 season sees an inc ...

Golden Gala Golden Gala is an annual track and field event normally held at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. Following the 2013 death of Italian sprinting legend Pie ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. He finished with a time of 12:51.93, shaving almost twenty seconds off his prior best and running below thirteen minutes in the 5000 m distance for the first time. This was the second-fastest time ever recorded for a North American, behind only compatriot Mohammed Ahmed. Knight was named to the Canadian Olympic team and finished seventh in the 5000 m event. His time of 13:04.38 was an improvement of more than 22 seconds on his prior World Championships appearance. Ahmed won the silver medal on the same day. Knight withdrew from the 2022 Canadian track and field championships, citing the need to manage an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

injury in advance of the

2022 World Athletics Championships The 2022 World Athletics Championships was the eighteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships. It was held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States, from July 15–24, 2022, with the country hosting that competition for the f ...

. In August of 2023 Knight joined Nike's

Bowerman Track Club The Bowerman Track Club (BTC) is an American training group sponsored by Nike, Inc. for professional distance runners as well as a separate recreational club for casual runners. The professional team is supported by head coach Jerry Schumacher and ...

Achievements

NCAA results

International results

References

External links

* * * * *
Justyn Knight All Athletics Profile

Justyn Knight Syracuse University Cross Country profile November 21, 2016

Justyn Knight Syracuse University Track and Field profile November 21, 2016

Knight on 'Cuse Conversations Podcast in 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Justyn 1996 births Living people Canadian male long-distance runners Canadian male middle-distance runners Canadian people of Barbadian descent Canadian people of Jamaican descent Syracuse Orange men's cross country runners World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada Athletes from Toronto Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for Canada