Team USA wins silver in women’s bobsled
9:15 p.m.: Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs earned a silver medal for the women’s bobsled. They were behind 0.07 seconds of four runs to Germany’s Mariama Jamanka who scored 3:22.45.
She felt like she gave away gold four years ago, losing the lead in the fourth and final heat. This time, she said, she gave her all, and that was enough.
“I am going to enjoy this. We’re going to go on vacation and we’re going to enjoy this,” Meyers Taylor said as husband Nic Taylor — accidentally, he said — sprayed her with a bottle of shaken-up sparkling water. “Part of it is just about the journey, and this has been one heck of a journey. I thought it would be easier after Sochi. I thought it would be a breeze after that. And things have only gotten more difficult. The things I’ve had to overcome have been crazy.”
Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs of the United States celebrate in the finishing area during the Women’s Bobsled heats on day 12 of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Olympic Sliding Centre on Feb. 21, 2018, in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea.
Getty
She’s not talking about things like a strained Achilles that affected her pushing abilities in Pyeongchang, or drama while trying to find the right brakeman for these games, or this World Cup season when she won only once. All that is significant but doesn’t seem that way compared with matters like a concussion that nearly ended her career in 2015 or how difficult it was for her to deal with the death of longtime teammate Steven Holcomb.
The concussion issue left her feeling fragile.
Holcomb’s death in May left her feeling broken.
“At that point, I didn’t want to think about bobsled,” Meyers Taylor said. “I didn’t want to be in a sled. And I love driving a bobsled more than anything in the world — except Nic of course. But to be at such a low point earlier this year and not be sure that I wanted to slide anymore and not have any joy in it … to come back and win a silver medal, I am through the roof.”
Free America Network Articles
