Elana Meyers Taylor stood in the leader’s box at Cortina Sliding Centre on Monday, anxiously awaiting Laura Nolte’s final run.
All Nolte needed to do was execute as she had on her first three runs. The German hadn’t relinquished her spot at the top of the leaderboard to that point, and her path to gold was clearer than ever.
It was a silver medal at worst for Meyers Taylor. She had already done everything she could to chase the gold medal that eluded her for so long in her 20-year career. All that was left to do was wait.
“The bobsledder in me was watching the lines to see if [Nolte] was making any mistakes; to see if the run was going according to plan,” Meyers Taylor told NBCOlympics.com.
Kaillie Humphries stood beside her teammate, already with the bronze medal secured and the American flag draped around her neck. Humphries knew all too well what Meyers Taylor was feeling.
“I’ve definitely been in that position,” Humphries said. “Unfortunately for Elana, I’ve been in that position against her.”
Humphries, then representing her native Canada, piloted the two-woman bobsled that won gold at the Sochi 2014 Games. Meyers Taylor piloted the United States’ first sled, which led the competition through the first three heats. On the final U.S. run, they crossed the line a tenth of a second behind the Canadians.
“I was in second place, and I had to watch and analyze [Meyers Taylor’s] run on her way down,” Humphries continued. “It didn’t go her way — it went mine.”
Twelve years later, Meyers Taylor looked on as Nolte navigated the twisting circuit. The German was a tenth of a second ahead at her start. Then, she hit the wall at the first curve.
“I saw she made a mistake pretty early, so I knew at that moment there was a chance,” Meyers Taylor said.
Nolte came out of the next sector just two hundredths ahead. She began to slip behind. When she crossed the finish line, she was 0.04 seconds off the pace.
“She’d been so fast at the bottom of the track, I was like, ‘she’s coming back,’” Meyers Taylor said. “So I was sitting there praying, watching and hoping everything went my way. A lot of other races haven’t necessarily gone my way, but that one did. I was super excited.”
For Humphries, it wasn’t about a gold medal lost. She gave birth only a year and a half ago and learned just how hard she could push herself mentally and physically — both as an athlete and as a mother.
“As long as I can walk away happy with my performance, then that was a win. And, I can honestly say that happened,” Humphries said. “Any time the U.S. gets to stand on the top of the podium is pretty awesome. So I was really excited for [Elana].
“We’re both moms now, and we get to continue to show that age is no limitation, that becoming a mom isn’t a limitation. You can be the best version [of yourself] if that’s what your dream and goal is. And I hope that’s what the young ones take from watching Elana and me on the podium.”
While that gold medal was a long time coming for Meyers Taylor, it was her sixth Olympic medal. She was already the most decorated Black winter Olympian and a four-time World Champion.
For Humphries, it was her fifth Olympic medal. All five times, she shared the podium with Meyers Taylor.
It’s no surprise that the two most accomplished female bobsledders in history have always been neck and neck. They’re just 11 months apart in age. They’ve been competing against each other on the World Cup circuit since 2007, and they both made their Olympic debuts at Vancouver 2010. But it was there that Humphries won her first gold, and Meyers Taylor had to wait more than a decade for hers.
“It’s crazy how people begin going for the same goal, and the journey [for us] has been so similar, yet so different,” Meyers Taylor said. “We went from training with the same [bobsled] coach, with the same strength and conditioning coach. At one point, we were living together in a hotel room in Phoenix and training together.”
“As Elana said, we’ve housed together, we’ve roomed together,” Humphries added. “We’ve shared therapists and coaches in the past. I know what she brings to the table, and I’ve seen it firsthand.”
Years before Humphries joined Team USA, the two worked jointly to expand opportunities for women in their sport. Women did not even compete in bobsled at the Olympics until Salt Lake City 2002, 78 years after the four-man event joined the Olympic program.
At the Park City North American Cup in 2014, they became the first women to drive against men in an international four-man bobsled competition. Humphries’ sled finished 6th, and Meyers Taylor’s finished 7th.
“Elana and I have worked together at trying to even get monobob as a second event for women in this sport when we didn’t always have that,” Humphries said. “It took both of us coming together, doing four-man, pushing the envelope, to even have this opportunity to compete in two events.”
It was only right that, in the first-ever Olympic monobob event at Beijing 2022, Humphries and Meyers Taylor went 1-2. And for the first time, they stood on the Olympic podium as teammates.
Regardless of where we are in our journeys now and the journey we’ve had together, I think we’ve made each other stronger and better as athletes.
“To be able to have [Humphries] on my team now, to be able to have that direct competition and to be able to learn so much from her has been really great for me,” Meyers Taylor said.
“It’s been a long journey between the two of us. We’ve had our ups and downs, but the thing that remains constant is the respect. Kaillie is — I don’t even think it’s arguable anymore — I think she’s the best bobsled driver in the world, men or women. And I think she’s proven that time and time again.”
Humphries agreed without missing a beat.
“I think that regardless of where we are in our journeys now and the journey we’ve had together, I think we’ve made each other stronger and better as athletes,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for Elana and just how hard she’s willing to work — how she puts everything she has into what she does. It forces me to do the same thing. And I think because of that, it has raised the bar — not only for women in bobsled, but also for each other.
“Together, we make this sport better and we make it better for women in sport,” Humphries continued. “She makes me better. I hope I can make her better and we can raise that bar so that long after we’re gone, more women have greater opportunity.”