Team USA bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has been a story of the 2022 Winter Olympics. She entered the Games as a favorite in the two-person event and the monobob, a new event in the Olympics.
On Sunday, she took silver, behind American Kaillie Humphries, in monobob. It is Meyers Taylor's third silver medal and fourth overall.
Meyers Taylor's journey to the Olympics involved a battle with COVID-19. On Jan. 29, she tested positive for the coronavirus and passed her flag-bearer role on to speedskater Brittany Bowe because she couldn't attend the opening ceremony.
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After two negative tests, Meyers Taylor was cleared to compete in Beijing on Feb. 5. She's posted pictures and videos of her time in isolation to her Instagram account.
Here's what you need to know about the bobsledding star as she competes for a gold medal.
4: Meyers Taylor is a four-time Olympian. She won the bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in the women's two-person race. She then won silver medals in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the same event. Meyers Taylor is the only woman to win three medals for the U.S. in bobsledding.
2007: Meyers Taylor's bobsledding career began in 2007 thanks to her parents and a failed Olympic tryout.
She earned a scholarship to play shortstop and pitcher for George Washington University's softball team in college. Meyers Taylor also played professionally for the Mid-Michigan Ice. She attended a U.S. Olympic softball tryout with hopes of making the 2008 roster.
She called her attempt to make the team "the worst tryout ever in the history of tryouts," according to the Women's Sports Foundation.
After she failed to get a spot on Team USA softball, Meyers' parents saw bobsledding on TV and suggested she give it a try. In the summer of 2007, she traveled to Lake Placid, New York, home of the Team USA Bobsled team. Meyers Taylor turned out to be a skilled brakewoman, helping the team win bronze in the women's two-person event at the 2010 Winter Games. Shortly after, she switched to the pilot's seat, and the rest is history.
9: Meyers Taylor is a nine-time U.S. National Push champion. This event has bobsledders competing in various push events and plays a part in the selection process for the national team. She won in back-to-back years as a brakewoman (2008-09) and seven straight times as a pilot (2010-17).
2014: Meyers Taylor married U.S. bobsledder Nicholas Taylor on April 24, 2014. Their son Nico was born around the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in February 2020.
"He [Nico] is my main motivation and the reason why I'm still bobsledding. ... He loves to watch Olympic weightlifting. He's easygoing and travels with me during the bobsled season," Meyers Taylor told NBC Sports.
Also in 2014, she and Canadian Kaillie Humphries became the first women to compete in a mixed gender team event.
2015: This was a successful and historic year for Meyers Taylor. She and pusher Cherrelle Garrett became the first women in American history to win the women's two-person event, achieving the feat at the 2015 World Championship. Meyers Taylor became the overall World Cup champion in 2015, winning six of eight races that season. She also added a U.S. pilot push title to her impressive year.