CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — EverythingElana Meyers Taylordoes is at full throttle. Apathy? Indifference? Not in her vocabulary.
Sports, motherhood and advocacy – the latter neatly intertwined with both formers – get her undivided attention. She's asix-time Olympic medalist, mom of two special needs boys and champion ofUSA Bobsledtalent development. All at 41 years old.
She is Elana Meyers Taylor: patron saint of sliding sports – and of have-it-all mothers everywhere.
On Saturday she'll pilot a two-woman bobsled for perhaps the final time. Her push athlete,Jadin O'Brien, came to the sport after a years-long campaign by Meyers Taylor to recruit the three-time NCAA champion pentathlete. But O'Brien isn't the only Olympian Meyers Taylor has lured to the ice track. Skeleton athleteMystique Rofound sliding because of the Olympic champion. So didJasmine Jones, push athlete forKaillie Armbruster Humphriesin the two-woman.
"I wanted to give other people the opportunity to enjoy the sport like I have," Meyers Taylor said. "And it's changed my life. It's given me a life. It's given me a family.
"... The women's bobsled team has been one of the most successful in the U.S. in history. So I'm very passionate about that legacy, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure that legacy stands for as long as I'm around."
Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates with the gold medal after winning the women's bobsled monobob competition during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Cortina Sliding Centre. It was the first gold medal in Meyers Taylor's legendary career, and her sixth overall, tying Bonnie Blair for most medals by an American woman in Winter Olympics history. See Meyers Taylor's legendary career as the 'queen of bobsled'" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
See Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated US female bobsledder
Elana Meyers Taylorcelebrates with the gold medal after winning the women's bobsled monobob competition during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Cortina Sliding Centre. It was the first gold medal in Meyers Taylor's legendary career, and her sixth overall, tying Bonnie Blair for most medals by an American woman in Winter Olympics history. See Meyers Taylor's legendary career as the 'queen of bobsled'
Before she was the most decorated woman in bobsled history, with six Olympic medals of all three alloys, Meyers Taylor was a little girl growing up near Atlanta.She got to hold the Olympic torch in 1996. Seeing women excel in those Games – as the first generation of athletes to benefit from the passage of Title IX in 1972, theU.S. women's basketball, soccer, softball and gymnastics teams all won gold– Meyers Taylor knew she could reach the same stage one day. Though, she probably didn't expect bobsled to be her way in.
Meyers Taylor was pitcher and shortstop on scholarship for George Washington University softball from 2003-07. She threw the first pitch, earned the first win and recorded the first run in program history.Meyers Taylor was inducted into GW's athletics hall of fame in 2014and received an honorary doctorate in public service four years later.
After a year of playing professional softball, Meyers Taylor tried and failed to make the U.S. Olympic team. But she sawVonetta Flowerswin bobsled gold in Salt Lake City six years earlier. Flowers, from Birmingham, Alabama, grew up on the same stretch of highway as Meyers Taylor (officially of Douglasville, Georgia).
And Flowers, like Meyers Taylor would for the better part of this century, defied winter sports' reputation as predominantly white. Both were Black women from the South. And both would change the sport forever.
Meyers Taylor made her Olympic debut in 2010 as a push athlete for Erin Pac. The duo finished third, claiming bronze and kickstarting Meyers Taylor's indelible streak of six podiums in six Olympic races. In 2011, she became a pilot. And a recruiter.
"It was out of necessity," Meyers Taylor said. "I was becoming a pilot, and I knew I was pretty far down the depth chart. So how it works in the U.S., if you're not top of the depth chart, you get last pick. So you need a lot of bodies in order to have a breakman behind you. So I was just blasting out all kinds of emails, doing whatever I can. And over the years, it actually became something that I was really passionate about."
Meyers Taylor went on to win silver in 2014 with former U.S. track and field OlympianLauryn Williams(who was recruited by fellow former track starLolo Jones, who was recruited by Meyers Taylorafter London 2012). In 2022, Meyers Taylor became the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, winning silver in monobob and bronze withSylvia Hoffmanin two-woman. On Monday night,Meyers Taylor finally won her gold, completing her collection of all three Olympic colors, in monobob. Her six medals tie Bonnie Blair for most ever by an American woman in the Winter Olympics.
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The record is Meyers Taylor's to break Saturday, Feb. 21 with O'Brien behind her in the two-man competition.
"Part of my efforts in recruiting have always been to recruit the best athletes possible. Not to base it off of color, not to base it off of race, not to base it off income level," Meyers Taylor said at the beginning of these Games. "… And it means so much more in Black History Month, because it does mean Black people. It does mean Asian people. It means Hispanic people. It means everyone. And that's really, I think, what all of us represent."
Armbruster Humphries, 40, quipped: "Pretty sure Jadin was born the year I started this sport, so we even got age diversity."
O'Brien's bobsled career is only a few months old, having started bobsled-specific workouts two days after herNotre Dametrack and field career ended Aug. 1. Meyers Taylor courted O'Brien for years over Instagram. The veteran sent O'Brien a direct message, which she initially ignored assuming some bot had slid into her DMs as opposed to the Olympic legend herself.
But Meyers Taylor kept trying, commenting on a video of O'Brien posted in September of 2024 of herself deadlifting,"That's bobsled strength right there!!!"
O'Brien turned pro in track shortly after her final collegiate season ended but decided to take the Olympic veteran up on her offer to try bobsled. Meyers Taylor made the transition easy. Well, as easy as possible.
"You can ask her anything. She's there to support you," O'Brien told USA TODAY Sports. "She's very easy to get along with, so that has been super helpful for me, especially as a rookie. Figuring out the sport, being on her sled, and having someone who's so patient and understanding and wants to help, that has been really beneficial for me as I've come to understand the sport better."
The Winter Olympics return to Uta in 2034, something American athletes are especially excited for after seeing the success and warm reception of their Italian competitors this month in Milano Cortina.
Meyers Taylor joked toward the beginning of these Games that it'd be a "medical miracle" if she was still sliding in eight years. She'll be 49 in 2034. Plus, Meyers Taylor and her husband Nic Taylor (a retired Olympic bobsledder) want to have another child.
But nothing could keep her away from the track. Not completely. She'll be around in some capacity, while continuing to advocate for her boys Nico, who was born deaf and with Down Syndrome, and Noah, who is also deaf.
It's a lifetime commitment – repaying the sport that gave her the life she leads, chin high and lines low.
Reach USA TODAY Network sports reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Elana Meyers Taylor Olympic champion bobsled driver, USA recruiter
