Meet Elana Meyers Taylor...
Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor is ready to suit up for her FOURTH Olympic Games, this time with her son, Nico, by her side. We asked Elana to describe all the ins and outs, joys and challenges of navigating life as an athlete AND mother and captured her response in the video below:
More from Elana:
"The biggest challenge I've had in balancing sport and motherhood is just how to logistically make it all work. As bobsledders, we travel for six months out of the year. We don't often get to come back to our home or even to the States. So how to care for and raise a child while you're on the road, while you're in Europe, while you're in Asia, all these different places. It can be quite a challenge. Also, my husband is a bobsledder as well, so we're both doing this balancing act. It's chaos every single day. But we do what we can and we make the most of it."
Having Nico and being able to share this journey with him has changed everything in my life. He's given me a new motivation. After the 2018 Olympics, I wasn't sure that I wanted to keep bobsledding and what my motivation was. I think as Olympic athletes, you always have the motivation of a medal. But after winning three medals, I needed something else. I needed something besides a medal to keep pushing for it, to go through all the pain and the hard work and the challenges. And Nico brought that to my life.
"It became a challenge of trying to prove what's possible and show my son that, despite all obstacles you face, you can overcome and you can persevere and you can go after your goals. I want to show him that you can go live your dreams. I want to show him that people are always going to tell you what's not possible and you're going to have to make the decision to to try to do what's not possible anyways. He's going to face that his entire life. And me facing that in bobsled is a small sample of what it's going to be like for him. Despite people telling me that it's not possible as a mom to continue to be in the sport of bobsled, I'm going to go after it anyways."
I think as women, we know that we don't want to be limited by what we can do, and that includes motherhood. I want to be able to be an elite athlete and a mother. It's always been my dream to do this. So the fact that I'm out here doing it, that I'm striving after my goals, it's amazing. It's an amazing feeling to be able to go after your goals and do this with your kid."
I think one of my greatest joys is coming home from races and seeing Nico and seeing how happy is to see me. And when he crawls into my arms, he's just so excited. He doesn't know what happened at the race. He doesn't really care either. But he loves me unconditionally, and that's something that's very powerful."
-- Elana Meyers Taylor, 4x Olympic bobsledder #andmother to two-year-old Nico
Showing the world how incredible women, like Elana, can thrive in both career and motherhood is central to everything we do. But they cannot do it without support. And neither can we. We are proud to play a small part is supporting Elana's journey and telling her story and your ongoing support for &Mother allows us to continue our work resetting the narrative around career and motherhood and paving the way for broader change in sports and beyond.
