US bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic champion who tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after arriving at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, has now been cleared to compete after two consecutive negative tests.
Meyers Taylor tested positive on January 29, shortly after traveling to China. The positive test meant the Georgia native was unable to run as the flag bearer for Team USA. She presented the honor to the speed skater Brittany Bowe, who, alongside Curler, led the United States in the Parade of Nations John Schuster.
Meyers Taylor, who has been asymptomatic, has remained in quarantine – away from husband Nic, a stand-in on the men’s bobsled team, and 2-year-old son Nico, both of whom have been traveling with her.
She has continued to exercise to the best of her ability, including pacing back and forth in her isolation room and spinning on a stationary bike gifted to her by USA Bobsled and Skeleton. She has documented much of her experience on Instagram.
During her isolation, friends and family have provided Meyers with support – and information – for Taylor.
“They sent me notes on the route and did various things along those lines,” Meyers Taylor said. “I also have loads of videos from our coaches who just went above and beyond to keep me engaged and involved. So I worked through that as many times as I could, watched videos, and did whatever it took to stay ready.
Meyers Taylor previously won Olympic bronze in Vancouver 2010, silver in Sochi 2014 and a second silver at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang. She was widely viewed as a gold medal contender at the 2022 Games, held after a 2021-22 Bobsleigh World Cup season in which she topped the overall standings in both the women’s monobob and 2-man events.
And that’s despite raising a young child born a month before a one-time pandemic.
“Part of the reason I started this whole journey again is because I just wanted to show that it’s possible to come back and perform at a high level,” Meyers Taylor said. “The biggest thing is that I just wanted to at least try. And we did more than try, we even had some successes.”
When asked what lesson she would have learned from her own mother and would have preferred to teach her son, Meyers Taylor said, “The world will tell you you can’t, and you’ve got to find a way to say it anyway. You must pursue it, regardless of the circumstances thrown your way.”
The first two rounds of women’s monobobs – one of seven events added to the 2022 Winter Games and the only one exclusively for women – are coming up May 12 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The last two runs take place the following evening.