With gold medal win, Elana Meyers Taylor is the most decorated U.S. female bobsledder

Elana Meyers Taylor won the Olympic gold medal for Team USA in women’s monobob on Monday, making her the most decorated U.S. female bobsledder out there.  

She beat Germany’s Laura Nolte. Fellow American, Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, who’s won gold three times, took home the bronze. 

Meyers Taylor, a 41-year-old five-time Olympian, previously won silver three times and bronze twice. She also has more medals to her name than any Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, according to Team USA. 

With Monday’s gold, she’s also tied speed skater Bonnie Blair for the most medals by a female U.S. Winter Olympian. Speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who earned eight medals across three Winter Olympics, holds the overall top spot for U.S. Winter Olympians.

Meyers Taylor is also now the oldest American woman to ever win gold at the Winter Games.

“I love going fast and I love being able to control this thing that should be out of control, that should be uncontrollable,” she told CBS News before the race. “It’s just so much fun to me and when you hit the curves right and when you’re gliding, it feels like being a superhero.”

Meyers Taylor also competes in two-woman bobsled. 

Last year, she took home bronze in the world championships. Overall, she’s earned 10 medals across her years competing in the world championships.

Meyers Taylor originally had hopes of competing in the Summer Olympics as a football player, but told CBS News she “had a disaster of a tryout.” Her parents, who’d seen bobsledding on TV, suggested she give it a shot. 

Husband Nic Taylor is a former Olympic bobsledder. 

A mom of two, Meyers Taylor is also an advocate for children who have disabilities. Both of her sons, Nico and Noah, are deaf and Nico also has Down syndrome. In addition to training for the Olympics, she’s also juggled normal parenting responsibilities and learning sign language. 

In November, Meyers Taylor told CBS News that when all the training is done and she’s in race mode, “I don’t think about anything. My mind goes completely blank, and I’m just fully in the moment, fully present. And I think that what keeps bringing me back is there’s very few times in life that you can be that present.”