At the Milan Cortina Games, Elana Meyers Taylor made another Olympic podium, winning a gold medal in the women's monobob to reach six career Olympic medals. The result adds to one of the most accomplished résumés in U.S. Winter Olympic history and extends a run of milestones that has shaped women's sliding sports for more than a decade.
The medal comes as Meyers Taylor continues competing as a mother of two, using her platform to advocate for children with disabilities and families navigating deafness and Down syndrome.
Quick facts
- Event: Women's monobob.
- Result: Gold medal.
- Olympic medals: Six.
- U.S. Winter Olympic history: Tied for the most Winter Olympics medals by an American woman.
- Tied for second in individual Winter Olympic medals by a U.S. athlete.
- College ties: George Washington softball, 2003-07 (shortstop and pitcher).
- Degrees: Exercise science (B.S.) and sports management (master's) at George Washington.
1) Medal No. 6 ties her for second-most Winter Olympic medals by a U.S. athlete
With six career Winter Olympic medals, Meyers Taylor is tied for second all time among U.S. Winter Olympians in individual medal count. Only Apolo Anton Ohno has more, with eight.
She is now tied with speedskater Bonnie Blair for the most career Winter Olympic medals by an American woman.
Her sixth medal extends her status as the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympic history, a mark she previously reached during the Beijing Games.
2) Her NCAA roots start at George Washington, where she starred in softball
Meyers Taylor helped launch George Washington's softball program as its first-ever recruit, then became the program's foundational star.
She graduated as the program's all-time record holder in nearly every offensive category and remains the only player in school history to hit above .400 in a season, doing it in 2006 and 2007.
Her career achievements at George Washington also included:
- Two-time Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year.
- College Sports Communicators Academic All-American.
- No. 24 retired, the only retired number in program history.
3) Her Olympic medal timeline spans five Games
Meyers Taylor's Olympic medal run started in Vancouver 2010 and continued through Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022.
Her medal history is broken down below:
- 2010: Bronze in two-woman bobsled.
- 2014: Silver in two-woman bobsled.
- 2018: Silver in two-woman bobsled.
- 2022: Silver in monobob and bronze in two-woman bobsled.
- 2026: Gold in monobob.
4) She broke barriers as a pilot and helped open doors for women in sliding sports
Meyers Taylor's résumé includes firsts that extend beyond Olympic medals.
Those include:
- Racing as a pilot in mixed-gender four-person bobsled competition, a rare space for women in the sport.
- Becoming the first woman to win an international medal in a men's event.
She also helped push for women's monobob to become an Olympic event. It debuted in 2022.
She was also elected by fellow Team USA athletes as an opening ceremony flag bearer in 2022 but missed the ceremony while in COVID-19 isolation, then was later elected to carry the flag at the closing ceremony in Beijing.
5) NCAA recruiter and inspirational mother
Meyers Taylor has played a direct role in expanding Team USA's pipeline, helping recruit athletes into sliding sports, including:
- Mystique Ro — Queens (Charlotte) track and field, skeleton.
- Jadin O'Brien — Notre Dame track and field, bobsled.
- Jasmine Jones — Eastern Michigan track and field, bobsled.
"She is the reason I'm here," O'Brien, a three-time NCAA champion, said in an interview with the NCAA about how she became a bobsledder.
Her Olympic story also includes motherhood. Meyers Taylor and her husband, fellow bobsledder Nic Taylor, have two sons, Nico and Noah. Both were born deaf, and Nico was born with Down syndrome, a reality that has reshaped the way she talks about purpose, visibility and what it means to compete at the highest level while parenting children with disabilities.
She has used her platform to advocate for children with disabilities and to share the realities many families navigate behind the scenes.
"They've given me a whole new reason to keep pushing," Meyers Taylor said in an Olympics.com story.
