Elana Meyers Taylor

thumb|Elana Meyers Taylor in 2019 Elana Meyers Taylor (born Elana Alessandra Meyers; October 10, 1984) is an American Olympic bobsledder who has competed since 2007. Quotes I’m pretty sure there are still some people who don’t want to see this happening, But it’s happening. The way everyone was acting it was like they were shocked that a woman could drive a sled. Still internationally there’s some resistance. I started thinking about this realistically two years ago. Before then I was just too young as a driver to really think about doing four-man. I started pushing within our federation, within our board of directors and they’ve been supportive the entire time. I think the biggest thing is I just wanted another opportunity to compete. Men have had two disciplines forever, two opportunities to win an Olympic medal where we’ve just been relegated to one. In our sport, pretty much if you are off [the pace in] the first run of the Olympics it’s pretty hard to work your way back. So really it comes down to the first run, if you’re not there you’re out of a medal already. To have another opportunity to compete and to show what I’ve got against the best in the world, that’s really what I was after. We want opportunities to compete, we want opportunities to show what we’ve got. There’s always been this comparison in our sport, whether male drivers are better than female drivers, and now we have a one-on-one comparison. I’ve had conversations with other athletes from Team USA – speed skaters, cyclists, a whole slew of athletes. Track and field have reached out to me and really congratulated me on what I’ve done so far and what they and I hope I will continue to do in the future. They’re really all behind it. I don’t know what impact it will have on a larger movement, whether other females will compete against men, but hopefully. I’m confident in my driving skills, It does present some challenges … You have the opportunity to go with me or a male pusher or male driver that might be faster than me; a lot of times they’ll go to that male driver because he’s faster regardless of driving skill. Luckily, though, I’ve been genetically blessed that I am able to hang with some of the men. In our combined scores I’m just as fast as some of our male pilots, I can lift a lot, I’m strong, I’m fast and I’m confident that I can compete at this level. The position down the track is all technique, all driving skill, that’s where I hope to pick up most of the time. At the start the push is very important, it is the only accelerator in our sport, but at the same time you can make up time from a poor start. Elana Meyers Taylor: ‘Some don’t want to see this happening. But it’s happening’,December 18 2014 Today I will tell Nico that his mom fought hard, and she did everything she could to bring this medal home to him. This is definitely the most difficult medal I've ever earned,It's definitely been the hardest journey to get here. I am so excited to take this medal back to my son at the hotel. I don’t want any woman to have to choose between a family and having an athletic career. In my opinion, we will really reach equity in sports when a woman can come back from having a baby and completely fail, and fall on her face – and that’s completely OK. Hopefully by me competing, we’re starting to show that ... mothers can go after their dreams and still figure out how to make it work, while being a mother as well. I don’t want you to be limited based off your desire to have a family. I know it’s not realistic for all athletes, I just want women to have the option. I want them to be able to choose and not be limited by whatever people think ... Just by getting here, we’re showing it’s possible to perform at a high level and be a mother. The world is going to tell you that you can’t, and you have to find a way to say you can, anyways. Not too bad for a 37-year-old mom, I’m the oldest driver in the competition, and the only one coming off a pregnancy, so I’m very excited about the starts. I knew with the lack of runs and with some of my struggles with monobob, I needed the start. For me, the difference between fourth and 20th place wasn't going to make a difference, So all I had to do was lay it on the line, and that's exactly what I did. I just went out there, enjoyed the heck out of this race, and fortunately it paid off. External links Category:Women in sports Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from the United States Category:Women from the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists Category:People from California Category:1984 births Category:Women born in the 1980s