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Editor’s note: This story was adapted from a feature in the Cornell Chronicle.

By Tom Fleischman

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 that his late father—who was also his wrestling coach at Lansing (NY) High—taught him many years ago.

Kyle Dake ’13 readies for his 165-pound wrestling match against Oregon State’s Seth Thomas on Jan 27, 2013, at Newman Arena. — Dake in Newman Arena.

“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,” says Dake.

“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.”

A lot of times people just get focused on the winning, and that can just hold you back.
Kyle Dake ’13

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 1906 won bronze in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in St. Louis in 1904.

Michael Grady ’19 rows with the men’s heavyweight varsity eight in January 2018 on the Cayuga Lake Inlet. — Grady rowing with the men’s heavyweight varsity eight.

Dake—a four-time Academic All-American on the Hill and 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.

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Grady will also be making a return trip to the Games, after his men’s four crew placed fifth in 2021 in Tokyo.

“To go to my second Olympics, especially with the first one being the COVID Olympics, is going to be a completely different experience,” he says.

Taylor Knibb ’20 runs on Cornell’s Moakley Course in September 2019. — Knibb at practice.

Knibb will be making some Cornell history when she lines up for the start of the women’s cycling individual time trial.

Having also qualified in her specialty, the triathlon, she’s the first Cornellian to compete in multiple sports at the same Olympics since 1908, when Lee Talbott 1911 (tug-of-war, wrestling, and track and field) represented the U.S. in London.

Knibb was a three-sport athlete at Cornell (cross country, track and field, and swimming).

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 says. “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.”

Sorin Koszyk ’20 rows with the men’s lightweight varsity eight in May 2018 on the Cayuga Lake Inlet. — Koszyk on Cayuga Inlet with the men’s lightweight varsity eight.

Koszyk was a two-time national champion at Cornell as a member of the varsity lightweight eight.

(His senior season was canceled due to the pandemic.)

It’s both the journey and how you get there.
Taylor Knibb ’20

In addition to competing, Koszyk says 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 says.

“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.”

Winkler—who was a three-time first-team All-American on the Hill—is the American record holder in the hammer throw.

He earned his third trip to the Olympics by finishing second at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. His training had been slowed in the early spring by a nagging hip injury, and he says he’d been pain-free for only about two weeks before the trials.