Team USA star Elana Meyers Taylor finally got her gold, with the decorated 41-year-old bobsledder winning Monday's monobob event to top the Olympic podium for the first time.
Though Germany's Laura Nolte led the competition through its first three runs, a few skids allowed Meyers Taylor to edge her out, with the US star putting together a near-perfect final pass to secure the come-from-behind victory by just 0.04 seconds.
"I didn't need it, but I wanted it," Meyers Taylor said afterwards, finally adding Olympic gold to her three silver and two bronze medals.
Completing Monday's podium was Meyers Taylor's teammate and 2022 gold medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, with both US bobsledders returning to the sport's highest echelon with children in tow: Meyers Taylor gave birth to her second son in 2022, while Humphries became a first-time mother in 2024.
"I grew up in this sport and would hear, 'if you have kids, once you get to 40, it's all downhill,'" said the 2026 bronze medalist. "Elana and I get to be proof that's not true."
Already the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history, Monday's win also made Meyers Taylor the oldest individual Winter Games champion.
Even more, with six career medals across the last five Olympics, her elite consistency has her tied with speed skating legend Bonnie Blair for the most medals earned by a US woman at the Winter Games.
"In 2010, at my very first Games, we had team processing, and we had a bunch of Olympians come and give us encouragement, and [Blair] was one of them," said Meyers Taylor. "I was just starstruck to even meet her. And now, to be in the same sentence as her, that just doesn't make sense."
How to watch Elana Meyers Taylor at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Both Meyers Taylor and Humphries will likely compete in this week's two-woman bobsled event, a race both have medaled in multiple times at previous editions of the Winter Games.
The first two-woman bobsled heats will begin at 12 PM ET on Friday, before the final two runs start at 1 PM ET on Saturday, with all four heats airing live on NBC.
