When U.S. Olympic bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor takes to the bobsled track on Sunday to compete in her fifth consecutive Winter Olympics, she doesn’t hope for a great run — she expects it.
“My nickname for people who know me most is E-Money,” Taylor told NBC News on a video call from her room in Cortina, Italy. “I’m money under pressure.”
That unwavering confidence, backed by elite skill and discipline, has propelled the 41-year-old Douglasville, Georgia, native to become the most decorated female bobsledder and Black Winter Olympian ever. These are two feats she said she never sought to accomplish. But other Black Olympic greats before her, like Shani Davis, Vonetta Flowers and her current teammate Erin Jackson, continue to motivate her.
“I’m a person who believes that if you see it, you can be it,” said Taylor.
And yet, despite her accolades, a gold medal at the Olympics has remained elusive. In 2010, Taylor won bronze in the two-woman bobsled in Vancouver. Then she won silver in Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018. In 2022, in Beijing, she won bronze again and silver in the monobob, in the sport’s Olympic debut.
Taylor’s current season has been less than ideal. She’s had no first-place finishes, chronic back pain and a brutal accident on a course in Switzerland last month, which she called “one of the most horrific crashes” she’s ever had. Still, as a veteran on a stacked U.S. women’s bobsled team, Taylor believes she can win it all.
“I’m still going for those two gold medals,” she said. “I still believe it’s possible.”
The spirit of triumph after defeat is familiar to Taylor.
After a stellar collegiate career as an All-American pitcher and shortstop on the George Washington University softball team in 2007, Taylor said she had a disastrous tryout for the U.S. Olympic softball team. She recalls swinging at a pitch that was over her head and faltering on routine field plays, which left her dream of becoming an Olympian in question.
But after her parents had a chance viewing of bobsledding on TV and nudged her to try a new sport, Taylor pivoted from the infield to ice, to her surprise, rather seamlessly.
No longer feeling the need to prove anything to herself or the public, Taylor said the only people she wants to impress are her two young boys: Nico, 5, who is deaf and has Down syndrome, and Noah, 3, who is also deaf. Both will join Taylor in Cortina, rooting from the stands at this weekend’s competition.
“Nobody in their right mind would say, ‘Hey, a 41-year-old woman is going to have a shot at another Olympic medal in a speed and power sport,’” said Taylor. “I want my children to know that people told their mom that it can’t happen and then she went for it anyways.”
