When Team USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor thrust her fist into the air as her two-person bob sled crossed the finish line on Feb. 19 at the Beijing Winter Olympics it was celebrating third place.
It meant she captured a historic bronze medal because Meyers Taylor became the first Black athlete in Olympics history to win five medals during an Olympics career.
Meyers Taylor is a three-time silver medal winner — Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 in the two-woman bobsled event and Beijing 2022 in the monobob, a first-time Winter Olympics event in which a competitor races down a specially designed ice track in a bobsled. She is a two-time bronze medalist — 2010 Vancouver and in this year’s two-person bobsled.
Meyers Taylor, who has raced with 41 different teammates on 14 tracks in 11 countries, won her fifth medal with teammate Sylvia Hoffman.
“That is overwhelming,” Meyers Taylor said following the race.
“It’s so crazy to hear that [most decorated Black Winter Olympics athlete] stat and know that I’m part of a legacy that’s bigger than me.”
In respect for her dedication and historic achievement, her Team USA teammates voted her as flag bearer during the closing ceremony. She had been slated to carry the flag during the opening ceremony but tested positive for COVID-19 on her arrival in China.
After quarantine with her son, Meyers Taylor passed a pair of COVID-19 tests in time to train and compete.
“It’s going to be really hard to top this Olympics. Two medals and now closing it out with flagbearer, it’s going to be really hard to top that,” she said.
She hinted her career will end with five medals, saying “There’s a good chance that it’s my last [Olympics.”]
