Olympic Champion Elana Meyers Taylor Wants Her Kids To See Her Fail
Elana Meyers Taylor has five Olympic medals from four Olympic appearances. She is the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympic history and is tied for the most medals by a female U.S. Winter Olympian.
The interesting part of her athletic career is that she made her bobsled comeback after the birth of her second son, not for the gold medal, she'll tell you, but as an experiment. To see what was possible. And to make sure her kids saw every part of it, including the parts that didn't work out.
The Clock Is the Only Opponent
People talk about Elana Meyers Taylor like she's been chasing gold her whole career. That's not quite right.
She's been chasing the clock.
"In our sport, you literally are racing the clock. So at the end of the day, yes, in order to win a medal, you have to beat certain people, but you really just want to go out there and lay down the best run you can, and let the results take care of themselves. You can't control what other people do."
She led the 2014 Sochi Games through three runs. Lost the gold medal on the fourth to finish in second. She was devastated. She came back and won another silver in 2018 and was elated. The medal color didn't change, but her relationship to it did.
"In 2018, I had torn my Achilles beforehand, and that was an Olympics that really taught me there's only so much you can control. You can prepare as much as you want, but you can't control all the factors. After 2018, I felt satisfied with my career, and that was when I decided I wanted to start a family."
Twenty years later, she’s still working to beat the clock.
"What I chose to focus on is how I can beat the clock, how I can get that much better every single day. To make sure the clock is the ultimate loser."
Cortina was the hardest medal she's ever won. It happened to be gold.
The Experiment
After her second son, she came back to bobsled. Not with a “gold medal or bust” mentality. But rather because she wanted to see what was possible.
"It really became an experiment, in a sense. It became, hey, is this possible? What's possible? And let's go out there and strive to see if we can make things happen."
There was no blueprint. More moms are competing now, she'll say that, but every single sport has its own reality behind the scenes. She was figuring it out in real time, with two disabled kids watching.
"My kids are disabled and I just wanted to show them that regardless of what happens in your life, you can push through challenges. The result at the end of the day wasn't the biggest thing. The biggest thing was just showing my kids that you can go after your dreams regardless of how they end up."
Before her golden monobob performance, she finished seventh in the two-man event with brakeman Jadin O’Brien.
"As much as I want my kids to see me succeeding, I want them to also see me falling and getting back up. This Olympics became this whole greater journey of showing them what's possible and going out there and doing everything I could to make it happen."
Winter Sport Is for Everyone. She Means It.
Meyers Taylor started bobsled in 2007. For twenty years, she's been competing at the top of the sport and doing her part to leave it better than she found it.
"Bobsled has given me a life, it's given me a family, and I want other people to have that opportunity. And also, I want the bobsled team to continue to be competitive. The only way you can do that is continue to recruit the best people in the world, regardless of what they look like or where they come from."
The best team wins, which means you find the best people. And the best people, she'll tell you, are the ones with grit.
"You look for those people who are gritty, those people who are willing to do whatever it takes to be the best in the world. Because that's really what's going to carry you in bobsled."
Jadin O'Brien, who Meyers Taylor recruited through Instagram DMs, is proof that a philosophy of grit works.
"What really struck me about Jadin is how she was constantly pushing the limit — and for a heptathlete, that's pretty rare. She was intense the entire way through. And you need that kind of intensity to take up a new sport. You need that kind of intensity to be successful in a new sport."
In terms of what it takes to be successful, Meyers Taylor knows that you can’t get to the top alone.
"It took Jaden O'Brien and Sadie McMullen, my teammates, to really help me and stay positive and create an atmosphere where it was fun and where I could just go out there and focus on what I needed to do."
Although the monobob gold medal has her name on it, Meyers Taylor credits her village of supporters that have helped her race the clock for the past twenty years.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
I'm Amy Wotovich and I’m on a mission to interview 100% of Team USA's 2026 Olympic and Paralympic athletes to create the most comprehensive mindset record of a single Games cycle. What do elite competitors actually believe about pressure, identity, failure, and joy? Elana Meyers Taylor is one of hundreds of athletes sharing their unfiltered stories. Follow the journey!
