Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated U.S. Olympic bobsledder in history with medals in all five of her Olympic events, is pregnant with her second child and will not compete this upcoming season, her agent said.
Meyers Taylor, who came back from having son Nico on Feb. 22, 2020, won a silver and bronze medal at the Beijing Winter Games and become the most decorated Black U.S. Winter Olympian in history. She is on a previously announced indefinite break from competition.
“I’ll take some time to really decide what my career looks like going forward, but I know I’m not done being in a bobsled,” Meyers Taylor, a Georgia native, told NBC’s Atlanta affiliate after the Olympics in March. “Whether that means 2026 Olympics, I don’t know yet.”
Meyers Taylor cited a desire to race on the World Cup circuit in the U.S., which she hasn’t been able to do the past two seasons because it didn’t make North American stops due to the pandemic.
“I want that opportunity again,” she said in March. “So I’ll be sliding at some point, competitive sliding, but what exactly that looks like four years down the road, I have no idea yet.”
She could go for a first Olympic gold medal in 2026 and to tie the current U.S. female record of five Winter Olympic appearances. At 41, she would break the record for oldest U.S. female Winter Olympian in a sport other than curling, according to Olympedia.org.
Meyers Taylor, who converted to bobsled from softball, is already the only U.S. Winter Olympian to enter at least five medal events and win a medal in all of them.
She is tied for fourth on the U.S. career Winter Olympic medals list behind Apolo Ohno (eight) and Bonnie Blair and Bode Miller (six). Speed skaters Eric Heiden and Chad Hedrick also won five medals. All of those athletes competed in at least seven career Winter Olympic events, more than Meyers Taylor’s five.
This past February, she was voted by her peers to be the U.S. flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony but after testing positive for COVID-19 was replaced by speed skater Brittany Bowe. Meyers Taylor later served as flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony.
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