‘The Olympic Curse is over’: ATX Rower to compete in Paris, relatives have tried to qualify for decades

AUSTIN (KXAN) — “The curse has been broken!,” Matt Knifton said ecstatic, as he took his morning row down Lady Bird Lake.

Knifton has been rowing competitively, training in Austin for the last 38 years. He tried to qualify for the Olympics in rowing back in 1992. And his father, a National Team Race Walker, also had Olympic dreams.

But his daughter Kate, is the first to make those dreams a reality.

“Multi-generational attempts at the Olympics, first time completed,” Knifton said with a laugh.

Fast forward three decades later, and Knifton is now getting ready to cheer Kate on at the Summer Games next month. Kate Knifton is a Paris 2024 Olympian for USA Rowing Women’s Four.

Her dad is the one who got her involved in the sport at the Texas Rowing Center , which he owns.

“She was never interested until I got her a job [at the Texas Rowing Center] in the summer of 2014,” Knifton said. “She noticed that there were a lot of tall boys in rowing, and that became the basis of which she became a rower! And I was right, she was going to be really good.”

Kate rowed at The University of Texas at Austin for five years, and won two national rowing championships with her team.

That latest victory, is one of sweetest memories. It was one of the final celebrations Kate got to share with both her father and grandfather who pushed her to fulfill her Olympic dreams.

“About 14 days later, he [my father, and Kate’s grandfather] passed away,” Knifton said. “But he knew that Kate was on a trajectory to possibly make the Olympics so he was very, very proud of her.”

It’s a multigenerational quest that’s nearly complete. And leading up to the games, Knifton will never forget the moments that led up to Kate qualifying, or that first conversation with her when she told him she’s an Olympian.

“She’s always calling me about her car… giving her trouble,” Knifton said. “And she called me and she said, ‘Dad, I need to put you on camera because I’ve had another problem with my car.’ And she put me on camera and then she told me she made the Olympic team.”

The father-daughter duo will perhaps always be connected through their love for rowing. And Knifton will always be incredibly proud for all Kate’s success.

Knifton said he and his entire family has already made travel arrangements to cheer Kate on in Paris at the end of July.

“We’ve got a large Airbnb, that’s going to have me, my partner, my sister, my daughter, my other daughter, Sophie, my mother, my ex-wife and her new husband,” Knifton said. “So, it’s going to be Team Kate, all in one spot. What could go wrong?”

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