At 41 years previous, Elana Meyers Taylor races down the monitor in a 350-pound bobsled as probably the most adorned feminine Olympic bobsledder of all time. She can also be probably the most adorned Black athlete in Winter Video games historical past with three silver and two bronze medals.
“Most individuals consider bobsleds like a curler coaster, however it’s by no means. Like you’ve gotten the vibration of the sled. You will have going up and down banked curves,” she defined. “Like it’s insane. However once you hit it proper, once you’re actually nailing it, it is the closest factor to flying I may consider.”
The 2026 Milan Cortina Video games is her fifth consecutive Winter Olympics.
“I really like going quick and I really like having the ability to management this factor that must be uncontrolled, that must be uncontrollable,” she stated. “It is simply a lot enjoyable to me and once you hit the curves proper and once you’re gliding, it looks like being a superhero.”
Her path to bobsledding
Bobsledding wasn’t initially Meyers Taylor’s supposed path. She initially needed to make it to the Summer season Olympics as a softball participant.
“I attempted out for the summer time crew and had a catastrophe of a tryout,” Meyers Taylor recalled.
She credit her mother and father for serving to her to seek out one other avenue to perform her Olympic dream.
“My mother and father had truly seen bobsled on TV, and so they’re like, ‘Hey, why do not you do that?’ I used to be like, ‘Certain, why not?’ Googled it, emailed the coach and received invited to a try-out.”
She stated switching from softball to bobsledding is not as excessive as one would suppose.
“Bobsled is a type of sports activities you get in later in life, anyway. Our power and pace that you just want in softball converts rather well to bobsled,” Meyers Taylor defined. “Like in case you have that athleticism, we are able to educate you the whole lot you could know to change into an elite bobsledder.”
It’s an costly sport, although. Sleds can value $60,000 and there is additionally a necessity for ice – so Meyers Taylor, who now lives in Texas, will get inventive in the summertime.
“What higher approach when you do not have a push monitor, and we do not have entry to a sled, than push a automobile,” she stated.
Household help
Meyers Taylor stated she’s skilled racism and bouts of melancholy through the years, however credit the help from her household for serving to her to push by means of.
Her husband, Nic Taylor, is a former Olympic bobsledder and her dad usually helps with their two boys.
“They each have totally different wants. They’re each deaf and my oldest has Down syndrome as effectively,” she stated. “So not solely are we juggling regular parenting stuff, we’re juggling therapies. We’re juggling studying signal language and the largest factor for me is it’s a household effort and we’ve got quite a lot of enjoyable doing it.”
