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Elana Meyers Taylor being an Olympic gold medalist is no longer a dream. It is a reality.
One of the best American Winter Olympic athletes in Team USA history finally earned a gold medal on Monday. It came in the women’s monobob competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, when she was just able to hang on to the top spot in the event.
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U.S. gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, left, and U.S. bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries, right, celebrate at the finish line after the women’s monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Meyers Taylor put together a time of 59.51 to launch herself ahead of teammate Kailie Humphries for first place. The two still needed to await Germany’s Laura Nolte. They held their breath as Nolte dropped just a few hundredths of a second on his run to finish second.
Meyers Taylor had an overall time of 3:57.93. Nolte finished in 3:57.97. Humphries picked up a bronze medal with a time of 3:58.05.
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Gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States celebrates at the finish line after the women’s monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
It is the first gold medal for Meyers Taylor. She tied Bonnie Blair as the most decorated female Winter Olympian in Team USA history. Both women have a total of six medals.
Meyers Taylor had been so close to getting gold several times. She won a silver medal in monobob in 2022 in Beijing and had silver medals in two women’s bobsleigh in 2018 and 2014. Now she can call herself an Olympic gold medalist.
Humphries earned his second Olympic medal. She won gold in 2022 in Beijing.
Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States slides down the track during a women’s monobob training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
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Team USA hasn’t found themselves on the podium in too many winter events, but two more medals added to their total is something they’re sure to take in the middle of the final week.
