Last Updated on February 13, 2022 by BVN
Jon Gaede | Black Voice News
Beijing – Familiar names like Herschel Walker and Lolo Jones have certainly helped place the sport of bobsled in the headlines.
Crossover sports’ athletes bring a unique ability to draw upon their raw speed and power to push the sled from the start gate, gaining precious fractions of seconds that often make the difference in competition.
America’s Most Successful Olympic Bobsled Athlete
The sheer desire and perseverance required to compete on the European Bobsled Tour requires a significant commitment for any American and over the past eight years, one such athlete has emerged as the nation’s most persistent and successful competitor in this sport, Elana Meyers-Taylor.
In a sport that once captured the imagination of movie goers with “Cool Runnings,” which depicted the unlikely Olympic endeavors of the Jamaican Bobsled Team, Meyers-Taylor may have competed in relative anonymity, had she not become extremely successful, winning two silver medals in consecutive Winter Olympic games.
She played softball in college, but has won two silver medals in Bobsled
Taylor’s athletic background in collegiate softball at Georgetown, doesn’t offer any clues to how she has become the darling of American bobsledders. However, desire, persistence, and a relentless ability to adapt and improve like superstars of other disciplines is certainly in her DNA.
Meyers-Taylor won her first Olympic Bobsled silver medal in Sochi, Russia in 2014 and two consecutive silver medals with her sled partner, pusher Lauren Gibbs at the 2018 Peyonchaing Winter games. In addition, Myers-Taylor has embraced the new sled discipline sport of “Monobob”, which has become a routine on the European tour and a medal sport at this year’s games in Beijing.
Meyers-Taylor chosen as USA flag bearer, then place in quarantine
To be chosen by your peers to carry the flag of your country, in the ‘Parade of Nations’ at the Opening Ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games, is truly a special honor. Myers-Taylor had earned that opportunity and looked forward to that night of celebration, however, she tested positive for Covid 19, and was placed in immediate quarantine. She then tested negative a few days later and is back to rigorous training for both the Bobsled and Monobob competitions to come.