Elana Meyers Taylor wins bronze in Olympic bobsledding

Team USA takes the bronze in the Two-Woman Bobled at the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Photo: Michele Roepke

BEIJING — Utahn Kaysha Love and her two-woman bobsled pilot Kaillie Humphries ended up in seventh place behind bronze medal-winning American teammates Elana Meyers Taylor and her push athlete Silvia Hoffman in the Beijing 2022 Olympics today.

Meyers Taylor adds this win to her four previous medals over four Olympics. Humphries hoped to equal that count, having amassed four previous medals, one being gold in Beijing’s debut discipline of monobob.

Team USA Olympic bobsledder Sylvia Hoffman at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. Photo: Michele Reopke //TownLift.

Meyers Taylor’s total time after four two-woman runs was 4:05.48, and Humphries’ time was 4:07.04 as sleds reached speeds of 131 km/h. Meyers Taylor set a track start record of 5.30. She will be the flagbearer for Team USA in the Beijing Closing Ceremony after missing out on that honor due to COVID quarantine and is now the most decorated black athlete Winter Olympian with five medals.

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Germany punctuated their Olympic medal dominance on the Beijing track taking home the gold and silver in the two-woman. The one dramatic crash in the race came from a Canadian sled.

Humphries competed for Canada until this Games, gaining her American citizenship only two months ago. Unlike doubles-luge athletes who train exclusively together for years and years, these in-sled duos were only assigned to one another within days of their Olympic event. Love spent most of this season as the push athlete of Meyers Taylor.

The Utah Olympic Park track is practically Love’s backyard. Born and raised in Herriman, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb, Love started her sporting career in gymnastics. She graduated from Herriman High School, winning 16 state titles as an individual or member of a relay team in track and field while maintaining a 3.75 GPA. She went on to study at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where her stellar track career launched her into this, her first year as a bobsledder.

Love said to the United States Bobsled Skeleton Federation before the race,

It’s just a very good feeling to know that she (Humphries) is giving her all out there and it’s an honor to be pushing her for our country.

A 36-year-old British push athlete competed in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics as a Track and Field athlete and again this week in the 2022 two-woman Bobsled event.