At 41, American Elana Meyers Taylor captures her 1st Olympic monobob title

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Elana Meyers Taylor's two younger sons watched her leap into the air, throw her fists skyward, wave the American flag, then fall to her knees and begin to cry.

In time, they will perceive what they noticed.

They noticed historical past.

The 41-year-old United States bobsledder — a mom of two special-needs kids, an athlete whose profession was jeopardized by concussions, somebody who handled loads of doubt in recent times — is, lastly, an Olympic champion. Meyers Taylor received the gold medal in monobob on the Milan-Cortina Video games on Monday evening, her sixth profession medal and first Olympic title.

"I assumed it was unimaginable," Meyers Taylor stated from Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

She was by no means happier to be fallacious.

She turned the oldest American lady to listen to The Star-Spangled Banner performed in her honour on the Winter Video games. Rallying within the fourth and ultimate warmth, Meyers Taylor prevailed with a four-run, two-day time of three minutes 57.93 seconds.

Meyers Taylor had medalled 5 instances beforehand — three silver, two bronze. She was essentially the most adorned Black athlete at a Winter Olympics even earlier than this win, and her place in historical past acquired a complete lot extra dazzling on a frosty evening within the Italian mountains. And this medal, her sixth, tied Bonnie Blair for essentially the most by a U.S. lady within the Winter Olympics.

"To have my title up there with Bonnie Blair, it would not even make sense to me," Meyers Taylor stated.

Nolte silver 'nonetheless an incredible end result' Germany's Laura Nolte, the chief after the primary, second and third runs, was second (3:57.97) and Kaillie Humphries Armbruster (3:58.05) of the U.S. was third.

"I am a bit unhappy as a result of now in the mean time it seems like I misplaced gold, and never that I received silver. In a number of hours I feel I can rejoice it, as a result of it is nonetheless an incredible end result," Nolte stated. "Elana additionally deserves it. She's a brilliant form human and he or she has received silver for a lot of instances now and the gold was lacking."

Humphries Armbruster, the previous Canadian Olympian, took gold within the inaugural occasion at Beijing 2022 when she turned the primary lady in Olympic historical past to win gold medals for 2 completely different nations. The four-time Olympic medallist received her first two gold together with her native Canada earlier than switching over to the U.S. following a harassment declare and dispute with the Canadian federation.

It was the fifth profession medal for Humphries Armbruster. She's 40 and about 18 months faraway from changing into a mother. She technically turned the primary lady 40 or older to clinch an Olympic bobsled medal, since she completed her competitors precisely two minutes 29 seconds earlier than Meyers Taylor crossed the road to affix the 40-something medal membership.

That is the fifth time that Meyers Taylor and Humphries Armbruster have competed within the Olympics. Every has medalled in every of their earlier 4 appearances; Humphries Armbruster was on the Canadian crew in 2006 however didn't race in these Turin Video games in Italy.

They're now 5-for-5. And Meyers Taylor, lastly, has the golden second.

"I did not want it," Meyers Taylor stated. "However I needed it.”

Melissa Lotholz positioned sixth (3:59.24) and Cynthia Appiah thirteenth (4:01.13) for a rebuilding Canadian crew utilizing 2018 hand-me-down sleds from the big-spending Germans, whose deep pockets hold them on the slicing fringe of bobsled engineering.

<img loading="lazy" alt="Canada's Melissa Lotholz arrives at the finish during a women's monobob run at the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy on February 16, 2026." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f5ecde6b-2ef6-4cc8-93f6-9141914e7f9c,1771285110216/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1180%2C640%29%3BResize%3D796 796w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f5ecde6b-2ef6-4cc8-93f6-9141914e7f9c,1771285110216/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1180%2C640%29%3BResize%3D1083 1083w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f5ecde6b-2ef6-4cc8-93f6-9141914e7f9c,1771285110216/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1180%2C640%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) calc(100vw - 32px),730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/f5ecde6b-2ef6-4cc8-93f6-9141914e7f9c,1771285110216/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1180%2C640%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.84375" data-cy="image-img"/> Melissa Lotholz, 35, of Barrhead, Alta., had a really constant begin to her 2025-26 season, ending within the high six in six of seven World Cup monobob occasions. (Aijaz Rahi/Related Press) Canadians have medalled at every Video games since '06 Canadian bobsledders have received at the least one medal in each Video games since 2006, together with two bronze in 2022. However heading into the Milano-Cortina Olympics, no Canadian crew had completed larger than sixth in a World Cup occasion.

The lone podium end result was Appiah’s monobob silver in Winterburg, Germany in early January.

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton misplaced $1 million in funding earlier than this season whereas crew charges ballooned to $25,000 per athlete, CBC Sports activities contributor Morgan Campbell famous final week.

A revised set of targets from Canadian opponents heading into Milano Cortina, Campbell wrote, have been extra targeted on course of than outcomes.

Canada fifteenth after 2 runs of 2-man bobsled Earlier Monday, Germany occupied the highest three spots within the opening two heats of two-man bobsleigh.

Johannes Lochner and Georg Fleischhauer led the way in which in a single minute 49.90 seconds.

Canada’s high sled was fifteenth, piloted by Calgary’s Taylor Austin, with Shaq Murray-Lawrence of Scarborough, Ont., as brakeman. They clocked 1:52.25, 2.35 seconds behind the Germans.