Team USA narrowly wins silver medal in Tokyo in first ever mixed relay triathlon

The United States came up just shy of a gold medal, but their performance in the mixed relay triathlon on Saturday in Tokyo was historic nonetheless.

Team USA finished 14 seconds behind Great Britain in the mixed triathlon relay, which officially made its Olympics debut, to claim a silver medal.

Katie Zaferes, Kevin McDowel, Knibb Taylor and Morgan Pearson made up the four-person team for the United States. All four athletes alternated throughout the race, and completed a 300-meter swim, 8 kilometer bike ride and a 2 kilometer run for their portion of the relay.

McDowell had the fastest time of the team at 20:14.

Great Britain won the 16-team event with a time of 1:23.41, and France took the bronze medal after finishing nine seconds after the Americans. Great Britain led throughout nearly the entire competition, and took a nearly 30-second lead in the third leg after Georgia Taylor-Brown flew ahead on her swimming portion.

France surged ahead of the United States in the final cycling leg, however, and caught up to Great Britain's Alex Yee. In the transition zone, though, Yee got out quickly and Pearson was only seconds behind him — which allowed him to surpass France’s Vincent Luis and secure the second-place finish.

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