Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated female bobsledder of all time, finally won gold on Monday in the women's monobob competition.
Ahead of the final heat, Taylor was 0.15 seconds away from gold, having finished the third heat right behind German competitor Laura Nolte. Yet when the competition was over, Taylor brought home the gold, sliding into first place by just .04 seconds
Meyers Taylor is no stranger to the Olympic stage.
During her Olympic debut at the 2010 Vancouver Games, Meyers Taylor won bronze in the two-woman bobsled. She followed that with two silver medals, one in Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018. In 2022, she won bronze again and silver in the monobob, as the sport made its Olympic debut for the Beijing Games.
Yet the bobsledding great had not gotten her hands on a gold medal — until now.
The now six-time Olympic medalist said that this medal definitely ranks first, but not just because it's her first gold.
"This is definitely the top, not only the Olympic champion, but to be able to do this with my kids, both my kids like it's just incredible," Meyers Taylor said to reporters after the medal ceremony.
She shared the moment with her two sons, Nico and Noah, on the other side of the finish line. And to Meyers Taylor, that's as good as gold.
The Olympian said that no matter her success at this year's Milan Cortina Games, when she gets back home, she's "mom" before she's a gold medalist.
"It means everything and it means nothing at all at the same time, because in six days, I'll be at school drop-offs at the end of the day, and I'll be in the drop-off line, and I don't even know that anybody will know what happened here today," Meyers Taylor said.
Ahead of the competition, Meyers Taylor had said that the only people she felt the need to prove anything to through her performance were her sons, ages 5 and 3.
“Nobody in their right mind would say, ‘Hey, a 41-year-old woman is going to have a shot at another Olympic medal in a speed and power sport,’” said Meyers Taylor. “I want my children to know that people told their mom that it can’t happen and then she went for it anyways.”
Meyers Taylor shared the podium with teammate Kaillie Humphries, who finished with bronze in the monobob event after winning gold in 2022. Humphries, who gave birth a year and a half ago, said that her and Meyers Taylor's performances Monday prove age is just a number.
"All those people, those haters, that like to say, once you're 40, you're over the hill, or once you become a mom, you can't be back on top of the podium. I think that's not true," Humphries said.
