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Elana Meyers Taylor’s two young sons watched as she jumped in the air, threw her fists in the air, waved an American flag, then fell to her knees and began to cry.
In time, they will understand what they see.
They see history.
The 41-year-old United States bobsledder – a mother of two children with special needs, an athlete whose career was jeopardized by controversies, a person who faced many doubts in recent years – is, finally, an Olympic champion. Meyers Taylor won the gold medal in the monobob at the Milan-Cortina Games on Monday night, her sixth career medal and first Olympic title.
“I thought it was impossible,” said Meyers Taylor of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
He was never happy to be wrong.
She became the oldest American woman to hear The Star-Spangled Banner he played in his honor at the Winter Games. Running in the fourth and final heat, Meyers Taylor won with a four-run, two-day time of three minutes, 57.93 seconds.
Meyers Taylor has won five previous medals – three silver, two bronze. He was the most decorated Black athlete at the Winter Olympics even before this win, and his place in history was cemented on a sweltering night in the Italian mountains. And the medal, her sixth, tied Bonnie Blair for the most by a US woman at the Winter Olympics.
“To have my name up there with Bonnie Blair, it just doesn’t make sense to me,” Meyers Taylor said.
Nolte silver still ‘good result’
Laura Nolte of Germany, the leader after the first, second and third runs, finished second (3:57.97) and Kaillie Humphries Armbruster (3:58.05) of the US took third.
“I’m sad because right now it feels like I lost the gold, not that I won the silver. In a few hours I think I can celebrate, because it’s still a great result,” said Nolte. “Elana deserves it too. She is a kind person and has won silver many times and gold was missing.”
Humphries Armbruster, a former Canadian Olympian, took gold at the first event in Beijing in 2022 when she became the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals for two different countries. The four-time Olympic medalist won his first two golds with his native Canada before moving to the US following abuse claims and a dispute with the Canadian federation.
It was the fifth award of Humphries Armbruster’s career. She is 40 years old and about 18 months removed from motherhood. She technically became the first woman age 40 or older to win an Olympic bobsled medal, as she finished her race just two minutes and 29 seconds before Meyers Taylor crossed the line to join the 40-medal club.
This is the fifth time Meyers Taylor and Humphries Armbruster have competed in the Olympics. Each has won the award in their four previous appearances; Humphries Armbruster was on the Canadian team in 2006 but did not run in those games in Turin, Italy.
Now they are 5 out of 5. And Meyers Taylor, finally, has a golden moment.
“I didn’t need it,” Meyers Taylor said. “But I wanted you.”
Melissa Lotholz placed sixth (3:59.24) and Cynthia Appiah 13th (4:01.13) for Canada’s rebuilding team using 2018 hand sleds from big-spending Germans, their deep pockets keep them on the cutting edge of bobsled engineering.
The Canadians have won in each of the games since ’06
Canadian soccer players have won at least one medal at every Games since 2006, including two bronzes in 2022. But going into the Milano-Cortina Olympics, no Canadian team had finished higher than sixth in a World Cup event.
One podium result was Appiah’s monobob silver in Winterburg, Germany in early January.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton lost $1 million prior to this season Team funds totaled $25,000 per athleteCBC Sports contributor Morgan Campbell commented last week.
The revised set of goals from Canadian competitors to Milano Cortina, Campbell wrote, focused more on process than results.
Canada is 15th after 2 runs on 2 hits
Earlier on Monday, Germany took the top three spots in the opening two heats of the two-man bobsleigh.
Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer took the lead in 1 minute 49.90 seconds.
The top Canadian sled was 15, piloted by Taylor Austin of Calgary, with Shaq Murray-Lawrence of Scarborough, Ont., as brakeman. They clocked 1:52.25, 2.35 seconds behind the Germans.
Jay Dearborn of Yarker, Eastern Ontario, and Mike Evelyn of Ottawa were 22nd of 26 teams in 1:53.33.
Heats 3 and 4 are Tuesday at 1 pm ET and 3:05 pm
