How bobsledding legend Elana Meyers Taylor made Olympic history after almost quitting the sport
Elana Meyers Taylor became Olympic champion at the age of 41 after almost quitting bobsledding
Just weeks before achieving Olympic glory, bobsledding star Elana Meyers Taylor was on the brink of quitting, overwhelmed by physical pain, poor results, and concerns for her two deaf children.
Her dramatic turnaround culminated in a gold medal at the recent Milan Cortina Games, a victory she almost never pursued.
The nadir came a couple of weeks before Christmas, during a World Cup bobsled weekend in Norway.
Her body was failing, her performance was dismal, and she questioned whether she was doing right by her family.
The pressure mounted until she sent a desperate text to her husband, Nic Taylor, a former bobsledder himself. "I’m done," she wrote. "This is just impossible. It’s never going to work."
Yet, the impossible became reality. Barely two months after that despairing message, and following her husband’s urgent flight to Norway to talk her out of retirement, Meyers Taylor secured the women’s monobob gold medal.
She was back on the ice this week, preparing with Jadin O’Brien for the two-woman race.
Reflecting on her new status, she quipped: "The only thing that has really changed is I’m sleep-deprived now. I’m an Olympic gold medallist with a lack of sleep."
At 41, Meyers Taylor made history as the oldest woman to win an individual gold medal in Winter Games history, surpassing Anette Norberg, who was 43 when she won curling gold as part of a team in 2010.
This sixth career Olympic medal also drew her level with Bonnie Blair for the most by a US woman in the Winter Games, and further extended her own record for the most medals won by a Black woman in the winter showcase.
The magnitude of her achievement was still sinking in. "Oh, I don’t think I’m going to process this for a while," Meyers Taylor admitted.
"There were so many moments during this entire season, during this past four years, that we just thought it was impossible, or I thought it wasn’t possible. My team around me believed in me the entire time."
Crucially, her husband’s professional connections played a pivotal role. Nic Taylor, now a performance coach for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, found an unexpected ally in one of the team’s players.
Upon learning of Meyers Taylor’s struggles, the unnamed player gifted Mr. Taylor a plane ticket, urging him to fly to Norway immediately. Without that timely intervention, the outcome might have been very different.
The victory also marked a significant moment for rookie bobsledder Jadin O’Brien, whom Meyers Taylor recruited to the team last autumn.
O’Brien, now an Olympian, described the moment of victory with unbridled enthusiasm: "As soon as I saw that E had won, I just started screaming, jumping, hugging anyone who was close. Almost passed out because I was excited. Without a doubt, the coolest sports moment I’ve ever been part of."
This praise is particularly striking given O’Brien’s own impressive athletic background, which includes three NCAA indoor track championships and ten All-American honours at Notre Dame. "Yeah, that’s saying something," O’Brien added. "It was beyond incredible."
Before her final two monobob runs, Meyers Taylor had spent part of Monday teaching her two sons, Nico, 5, and Noah, 3, sign language for terms like "gold medal" and "Olympic champion."
She insisted she never thought they would actually need to use them. Yet, the boys clearly understood the significance. Meyers Taylor recounted the "coolest thing" on her first day as a gold medallist was Noah putting on the medal.
"He knew. He started signing, ‘Noah, champion,’" she said, adding with a laugh, "I didn’t get it on video because he wasn’t wearing pants, of course, because what toddler wants to wear pants?"
Her initial scepticism about needing those signs was understandable, given her season’s performance.
She finished tenth in the World Cup monobob standings, with an average tenth-place finish, and a disappointing 19th at Cortina in November, 2.43 seconds behind the winner.
Her Olympic journey had also been marked by heartbreak: in Sochi 2014, she lost gold by just 0.10 seconds, and in Pyeongchang 2018, by an even narrower 0.07 seconds.
This time, the margin was even tighter – a mere 0.04 seconds separated her from silver medallist Laura Nolte of Germany. But this time, she prevailed.
"That’s a moment I’ve been working for every four years and that’s why I came back is for that moment, to be on that start line and feel that again," Meyers Taylor stated. "That is a crazy addictive feeling and I don’t know where I’m going to get it from after I leave this sport."
The question of retirement looms. Meyers Taylor and her husband hope for a third child, and she has often spoken of the challenge of touring with her current children, even with assistance.
Adding a third might prove too much. With every major accolade in the sport now under her belt, she feels there is nothing left to prove.
"I was determined to keep fighting, determined to just put down the best runs I could," she concluded. "And look what happened."
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