Justyn Knight (born 19 July 1996) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

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-dista ...

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, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

, 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 The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...

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 bet ...

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

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Running career

Youth

Knight was born and raised in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

to parents of

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

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

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

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

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

, 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 all-boys Catholic private school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Congregation of St. Basil, 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 most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

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 on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

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 3000 m shou ...

final round. He was the runner-up at the 2016 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships behind Patrick Tiernan 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 College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

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 sta ...

final to earn his first

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

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 The 2017 IAAF World Championships, the sixteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 4 to 13 August at London Stadium in London, United Kingdom. London was officially awarded the championships on 11 November 2011. Bidding p ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 sta ...

. 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 footwear and clothing brand 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 which had bee ...

'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 championsh ...

, 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 in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, he was twenty pounds over his typical race weight. 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 sport of athletics, athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athleti ...

Doha Doha ( ) 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 (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

later that year and finished tenth in the

. Having missed the Olympic standard for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

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 are an annual indoor athletics (track & field) meet held each February in New York City. Among the world's most prestigious indoor track meets, the games started taking place at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after ...

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

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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, was the twelfth season of the Diamond League, annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by World Athletics. The 2021 season sees an in ...

Golden Gala Golden Gala is an annual Track and field, track and field event normally held at the Stadio Olimpico, Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. Following the 2013 deat ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European t ...

. 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 calcane ...

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 ...

. In August 2023 Knight joined Nike's Bowerman Track Club.

Achievements

NCAA results

International results

References

External links

* * *
Justyn Knight Syracuse University Cross Country profile November 21, 2016

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

Justyn Knight at All-Athletics.com
* * *
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 Sportspeople of Barbadian descent Canadian sportspeople of Jamaican descent Syracuse Orange men's cross country runners World Athletics Championships athletes for Canada Track and field athletes from Toronto Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic track and field athletes for Canada NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners Syracuse Orange men's track and field athletes 21st-century Canadian sportsmen