Elana Meyers Taylor: Gold at the Speed of Life
Elana Meyers-Taylor competing in the 2-woman bobsleigh at the 2018–19 Bobsleigh World Cup in Altenberg (Jan. 5, 2019). Photo by Sandro Halank (Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Some victories take decades.
At 41 years old, Elana stood at the top of the Olympic podium in Milan Cortina and claimed her first gold medal after five Games, three silvers, two bronzes, injuries, and relentless work. In doing so, she became the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history and tied speed skater Bonnie Blair for the most Winter Olympic medals ever won by an American woman.
But her story is not only about medals.
It is about endurance. Physical, emotional, and moral.
A Different Kind of Power
Elite bobsledding demands explosive strength and fearless commitment. Elana has both. Yet what makes her remarkable is the power she carries beyond the ice.
She is a mother of two young sons who are deaf. Her eldest, Nico, was also born with Down syndrome. While training at the highest level in the world, she learned American Sign Language so she could fully communicate with them. When things were at their lowest, her body hurting, the results going poorly, she texted her husband: “I'm done. This is just impossible. It's never going to work”. She kept going anyway.
She said after winning gold that she wanted her children to know that people told their mom it couldn't happen, and she went for it anyway.
Her gold medal did not come in spite of motherhood. It came alongside it.
Breaking Barriers Quietly and Publicly
In 2014, Elana became the first woman to win a medal in a men's international bobsled event, racing in a mixed-gender four-man crew. In 2019, she became president of the Women's Sports Foundation, driven by what she described as a responsibility to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. In 2020, she wrote publicly about the racism she had experienced throughout her bobsledding career> She named it clearly, on record, for Team USA.
Her leadership is not loud for attention. It is steady for change.
That kind of courage ripples outward.