U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, at last, has her first Olympic gold medal following a dramatic come-from-behind victory in Monday’s monobob final at the Milan Cortina Games.
The 41-year-old mother of two is now tied with speedskater Bonnie Blair for the most Winter Olympic medals by a U.S. woman with six. And she’s the oldest Winter Olympian to ever win a gold medal in an individual event, breaking a record set by Austrian snowboarder Benjamin Karl just days earlier.
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Meyers Taylor’s U.S. teammate, Kaillie Humphries, won bronze, while Germany’s Laura Nolte secured silver.
Dramatic final secures repeat U.S. gold
Meyers Taylor entered her final run in silver-medal position and knowing the time she needed to finish ahead of her teammate, Humphries, who secured a podium position one run earlier.
Meyers Taylor ran a clean run and crossed the finish line with a combined time across four runs of 3:57.93, 0.12 seconds ahead of Humphries’ time. The run secured silver at worst and put pressure on Nolte, who had held the lead through the first three runs of competition.
Nolte sledded the final run of the day and crossed the finish line with a combined time of 3:57.97, .04 seconds behind Meyers Taylor’s run, ensuring gold for Meyers Taylor.
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When Nolte’s time was posted, Meyers Taylor clutched a U.S. flag in joy. She celebrated the moment with her two young sons and then Humphries.
Elana Meyers Taylor added her first gold to a tally of six Olympic medals across five Games.
(MARCO BERTORELLO via Getty Images)
‘E Money’ secures first gold in fifth Olympics
Meyers Taylor is a decorated Olympic medalist who entered this year’s competition seeking her first gold. She started the Games with two silver Olympic medals and two bronze medals in two-woman bobsled from Vancouver (2010), Sochi (2014), Pyeongchang (2018) and Beijing (2022). She also won the silver medal in Beijing in monobob.
Armed with that hardware, she entered the Milan Cortina Games brimming with confidence.
“My nickname for people who know me most is E-Money,” Taylor told NBC News prior to competition. “I’m money under pressure.”
She now has an Olympic gold medal to back up her boasts.
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USA dominant in monobob
Through two Games, Team USA now has four of the six medals awarded in Olympic monobob competition. Humphries and Meyers Taylor have all four. Humphries won gold in Beijing in addition to Meyers Taylor’s silver.
Monobob is in its second Games after debuting in Beijing in 2022. It features a single driver in a lighter sled than used by two- and four-person bobsled teams. It’s a women’s-only event at the Olympic level and brings the number of bobsled competitions for men and women to two each.
Women compete in monobob and two-woman bobsleds. Men compete in two-man and four-man teams.
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