Olympic bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor finally carried out the flag-bearing honor Sunday that was denied her when she contracted COVID-19 before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Meyers Taylor waved the flag for the U.S. team in the closing ceremony as the most-decorated Black athlete ever in the Winter Games.
“Humbled and honored to close out these Games as @teamusa Closing Ceremony flag bearer!” she wrote on Instagram late Sunday in Beijing. “Memories to last a lifetime! Thank you to everyone who made this possible.”
On Saturday the 37-year-old won bronze with Sylvia Hoffman (see the video below) in the two-woman bobsled to reach five career medals, surpassing the four of the previously most-decorated Black athlete of the Winter Olympics, U.S. speedskater Shani Davis.
“It’s so crazy to hear that stat and to know that I’m part of a legacy that’s bigger than me,” Meyers Taylor said, per CNN. “Hopefully it just encourages more and more Black athletes to come out to winter sports and not just Black athletes, winter sports for everybody.”
Meyers Taylor also has collected more medals than any woman in Olympic bobsledding.
The four-time Olympian previously won silver in the monobob at the Beijing Games. She captured silver medals in the two-woman event in 2018 and 2014 and bronze in 2010.
The start of the Olympics was anything but glorious for Meyers Taylor. She tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in China, endured isolation from her young son, whom she is nursing, and had to give up the honor of carrying the flag for the U.S. team at the opening ceremony because of her illness.
But she was voted to be the flag bearer for Sunday, capping what may be her last Games.
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