Olympic champion mom of kids with special needs returns to Team USA

Elana Meyers Taylor, an Olympic champion bobsledder and mom of two boys with special needs, is returning for the fifth Olympic games representing Team USA.

Key Takeaways:

• Elana Meyers Taylor is the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history.

• She is also a wife and mother; both of her sons, Nico and Noah, have special needs. They are both deaf, and Nico also has Down syndrome.

• The USA Bobsled & Skeleton selection committee chose Meyers Taylor to represent Team USA in 2026.

• While Meyers Taylor is heavily decorated, she has not yet won gold, which is her mission in this year's games.

• She gave thanks to other mothers in the disability community for the strength to continue competing.

The Details:

The 2026 Winter Olympics bobsled and skeleton team was announced in a press release this week, with Meyers Taylor named as the pilot, alongside Jadin O’Brien as the push athlete. She has competed in four previous Olympic games and medaled in all of them, racking up two silvers and three bronzes.

She just earned a bronze medal in the World Championships for monobob, and has her sights set on an even more prestigious medal in this year's Olympics. This time, Meyers Taylor is looking for the gold though she is 41 years old, and having just had a terrifying crash which she described as the worst of her career.

"This is the aftermath of one of the most horrific crashes I’ve ever had — which happened this Tuesday. The reason my runners are pointed in the wrong direction is that my front axle (yes bobsleds have axles like cars) ripped through the front of my sled on impact. Only by the Grace of God — and a small weight plate in the front of my sled — was I saved from the axle continuing its path and ripping though the rest of my sled and me in the process — a piece of weight that our mechanic, Marc Van Den Berg, had just added for the race last week.

After the initial crash, I crashed three more times due to the broken axle before the sled finally came to a stop thanks to the amazing track crew at @olympiabobrun . I’m extremely grateful that my brakeman @jadinobrien and I were able to walk away from this one with minimal injuries, as we were inches away from having a different outcome."

This year's Winter Olympics will take place in Italy, with bobsledding events taking place on February 15. She has previously said that she competes to help bring people to God.

“One of the big reasons I was put in bobsled is to help people not only reach their goals, but come to Christ,” she said. “God put me here for a specific reason and I don’t think it’s just to win medals. At the end of the day, I’m in this sport to glorify God, so if that means I come in last place or I win the gold medal, that’s what I’m going to do.”

The Backstory:

Though Meyers Taylor has competed as a mother before, this is her first Olympic games as a mom of two.

In 2020, she welcomed her son Nico, who has Down syndrome. She pointed to Team USA’s Noelle Pikus-Pace as her inspiration for continuing to compete after giving birth. “I always wanted to be a mother and to bobsled as long as I could,” she said to the Washington Post. “To see her firsthand be able to do it, I was like, ‘Maybe we can make this work.'”

Yet she also realized that she had the opportunity to inspire others, too, particularly with Down syndrome advocacy.

“People with Down syndrome can live long, happy successful lives,” she said after Nico was born. “When people get this diagnosis of Down syndrome, they’re immediately afraid. I’ve even read some people go through a grieving process. I never went through a grieving process with my son. I love him, and I think he’s absolutely perfect.”

She also wanted to show that it was possible to compete at an older age and as a mother. "I just wanted to show it’s possible. It’s possible to compete at the highest level at 37 years old,” she said. “It’s possible to have a baby and come back from pregnancy and continue competing. It’s possible to do extended breastfeeding and physically perform better than most in the works. It’s possible to travel the world with your family, including a baby, and win races. It’s possible to parent a child with special needs and continue to chase your dreams."

And Meyers Taylor met that goal; she didn't become the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics history until after she gave birth to Nico, and she did it while she was still breastfeeding.

In 2023, Meyers Taylor gave birth to her second son, Noah. Like his brother Nico, Noah is deaf, though only Nico has Down syndrome. The family communicates using American Sign Language (ASL), and in an emotional Instagram post, Meyers Taylor credited moms in the disability community for giving her the strength to keep going.

"These are also the moms that know that even though our lives are hard, our kids are pure joy. These are the moms who know how to fight — more than any Olympic athlete on the planet," she said. "And these are the moms that love harder too. We live a life very few understand, but we have each other. So to all those Moms — thank you. I wouldn’t be here without you."

The Bottom Line:

Meyers Taylor is proof that women are capable of accomplishing great things, even while raising children.