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From the Brink to the Podium: Meyers Taylor’s Unbelievable Gold Medal Journey
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Just weeks before Christmas, bobsledding star Elana Meyers Taylor was ready to throw in the towel. Battling physical pain, guilt about being away from her two deaf children, and a string of dismal race results, she sent a desperate text to her husband: “I’m done.
This is just impossible. It’s never going to work.”
Fast forward barely two months, and what a difference an Olympic gold medal makes! Meyers Taylor, who at 41 became the oldest woman to win an individual gold medal in Winter Games history, snagged the top spot in the women’s monobob at the Milan Cortina Games. She was back on the ice Tuesday, prepping for the two-woman race with Jadin O’Brien, which kicks off Friday.
“The only thing that has really changed is I’m sleep-deprived now,” Meyers Taylor quipped. “I’m an Olympic gold medalist with a lack of sleep.” We’d say that’s a pretty good problem to have!
This incredible turnaround almost didn’t happen. Her husband, former bobsledder Nic Taylor, flew to Norway after those “I’m done” texts to talk her out of quitting. Turns out, his NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs, even gifted him the plane ticket when a player learned of Meyers Taylor’s struggles.
Meyers Taylor’s sixth career Olympic medal ties Bonnie Blair for the most by a U.S. woman in the Winter Games, and she also extended her record for most medals by a Black woman in the winter showcase.
“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.”
Her rookie teammate, Jadin O’Brien, was practically bursting with excitement. “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,” said O’Brien, a former 10-time NCAA All-American in track and field. “Without a doubt, the coolest sports moment I’ve ever been part of.”
Before her final monobob runs, Meyers Taylor even taught her two sons, Nico (5) and Noah (3), sign language for “gold medal” and “Olympic champion.” She claims she didn’t think they’d actually need them – a testament to how unexpected this victory truly was, given her 10th-place World Cup monobob standings this season.
But the boys definitely knew! Meyers Taylor shared the “coolest thing” about being a gold medalist: Noah putting on the medal and signing, “Noah, champion.” She laughed, “I didn’t get it on video because he wasn’t wearing pants, of course, because what toddler wants to wear pants?”
This gold medal is particularly sweet for Meyers Taylor, who has faced agonizingly close losses in past Olympics, missing gold by fractions of a second in both Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018. This time, the margin was a mere 0.04 seconds over Germany’s Laura Nolte, but it was enough.
“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 said, hinting at possible retirement. “That is a crazy addictive feeling and I don’t know where I’m going to get it from after I leave this sport.”
With talk of a third child and having won everything the sport offers, Meyers Taylor has 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.”