Two days after arriving in Beijing for the Winter Olympics, U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, one of Team USA’s best hopes for a medal, tested positive for COVID-19.
The three-time Olympic medalist announced her positive test on social media Tuesday. According to China’s Olympic COVID-19 protocols, Meyers Taylor must isolate, including from her son Nico, who was born with Down syndrome in 2020 and is still nursing.
“Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done,” Meyers Taylor wrote on Instagram.
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics. It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding [for] a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Olympics begin Friday with the opening ceremony, but bobsled competition doesn’t begin until Feb. 13.
Meyers Taylor made her fourth Olympic team and is expected to compete with fellow American Kaillie Humphries for the gold medal in women’s monobob, which is making its Olympic debut this year. Meyers Taylor, 37, won the 17-event World Cup series this season with 1,110 points, narrowly edging out Humphries’ 1,052. The teammates placed first and second in the final race of the season with Humphries, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Canada, finishing 0.04 seconds ahead of Meyers Taylor.
Meyers Taylor won silver medals as the pilot in two-woman bobsled in the Sochi and Pyeongchang Olympics and won a bronze with pilot Erin Pac in Vancouver.
