Gold for Elana! Meyers Taylor, 41, wins Olympic monobob title at Milan Cortina Games

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Elana Meyers Taylor's two young sons watched her leap into the air, throw her fists skyward, wave the American flag, then fall to her knees and start to cry.

In time, they'll understand what they saw.

They saw history.

The 41-year-old U.S. bobsledder — a mother of two special-needs children, an athlete whose career was jeopardized by concussions, someone who dealt with plenty of doubt in recent years — is, finally, an Olympic champion. Meyers Taylor won the gold medal in monobob at the Milan Cortina Games on Monday night, her sixth career medal and first Olympic title.

“I thought it was impossible,” Meyers Taylor said.

She was never happier to be wrong.

She became the oldest American woman to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” played in her honor at the Winter Games. Rallying in the fourth and final heat, Meyers Taylor prevailed with a four-run, two-day time of 3 minutes, 57.93 seconds.

Meyers Taylor had medaled five times before — three silver, two bronze. She was the most decorated Black athlete at a Winter Olympics even before this win, and her place in history got a whole lot more dazzling on a frosty night in the Italian mountains. And this medal, her sixth, tied Bonnie Blair for the most by a U.S. woman in the Winter Olympics.

“To have my name up there with Bonnie Blair, it doesn't even make sense to me,” Meyers Taylor said.

Germany’s Laura Nolte — the leader after the first, second and third runs — was second and Kaillie Humphries Armbruster of the U.S. was third.

“I’m a bit sad because now at the moment it feels like I lost gold — and not that I won silver. In a few hours I think I can celebrate it, because it’s still a great result,” Nolte said. “Elana also deserves it. She’s a super kind human and she has won silver for many times now and the gold was missing.”

It was the fifth career medal for Humphries Armbruster. She's 40 and about 18 months removed from becoming a mom — and she technically became the first woman 40 or older to clinch an Olympic bobsled medal, since she finished her competition exactly 2 minutes, 29 seconds before Meyers Taylor crossed the line to join the 40-something medal club.

“You get a lot of people that like to write you off as soon as you reach 40, it’s all downhill from there, is what you hear. I think Elana and I are both proof that that’s not true,” Humphries Armbruster said. “As soon as you become a mom, your body’s not the same, and you can never get that high performance back, and I think we were able to show that that’s not true again.”

Nolte led by 0.15 seconds going into the final run, with Meyers Taylor second and Humphries Armbruster third — 0.24 seconds off the lead. Barring big mistakes, gold, silver and bronze would be theirs in some order; nobody else was within 0.6 seconds of Humphries Armbruster, nor within about a full second of Nolte’s lead going into the final heat.

They go in reverse order in sliding. That meant Humphries Armbruster went first among the final three, then Meyers Taylor, then Nolte.

Humphries Armbruster finished in 3:58.05, knowing she was assured of her fifth career medal when she crossed the line. As the sled skidded to a stop, she was already on her feet — throwing her arms into the air, knowing at least bronze was coming her way.

U.S. coach Brian Shimer, often stoic, started punching the air in celebration. And then the scene was set for Meyers Taylor, who held on to no worse than the silver spot and wrapped herself in an American flag after hopping out of the sled.

Nolte had the lead going into the last run. She just couldn’t hold it.

Kaysha Love, the world monobob champion for the U.S. last year, had big trouble in her second and fourth runs and finished seventh with a final time of 3:59.27.

“Seeing Elana, that was iconic,” Love said.

Humphries Armbruster won the gold medal in the inaugural running of monobob at the 2022 Beijing Games, with Meyers Taylor winning silver.

This is the fifth time that Meyers Taylor and Humphries Armbruster have competed in the Olympics. Each has medaled in each of their previous four appearances; Humphries Armbruster was also on the Canadian Olympic team in 2006, but did not race in those Turin Games.

They’re now 5-for-5. And Meyers Taylor, finally, has the golden moment.

“I didn't need it,” Meyers Taylor said. “But I wanted it.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Germany's silver medalist Laura Nolte, left, and United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, right, celebrate at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

From let, United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor, United States' bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries and Germany's silver medalist Laura Nolte celebrate at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

From left, Germany's silver medalist Laura Nolte, United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor and United States' bronze medalist Kaillie Armbruster Humphries pose for photos on the podium of a women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor kisses her medal on the podium of a women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Germany's Lisa Buckwitz slides down the track during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' Kaysha Love arrives at the finish during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

United States' Kaillie Armbruster Humphries slides down the track during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

United States' Elana Meyers Taylor slides down the track during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Germany's Laura Nolte slides down the track during a women's monobob run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

MILAN (AP) — Small margins decided gold medals at the Milan Cortina Olympics as Eileen Gu had to settle for another silver in defense of her big air ski freestyle title and Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S. finally won bobsled gold in her fifth Olympics.

Also on Day 10 of the Winter Games, a Norwegian contender’s emotional reaction overshadowed the last men’s Alpine ski event, and the U.S. and Canada advanced to another gold medal showdown in women's hockey after winning their semifinal games.

Gu came to Italy to fight for gold medals in three different freestyle ski events. She has two silvers and still has her best event, the halfpipe, to go.

After a long delay because of heavy snow, it was Canada’s Megan Oldham who soared to victory with a combined score of 180.75 to Gu's 179.

It was still a remarkable performance from Gu, the San Francisco-born skier for China who hadn't competed in big air in the four years since winning gold at the 2022 Olympics.

The athlete who beat Gu to the gold in slopestyle last week, Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud, was ruled out of the big air final when she injured her hip in practice hours before.

Vancouver, Sochi, Pyeongchang, Beijing. Meyers Taylor won at least one medal at each of her first four Olympics, but the gold always eluded her.

No longer.

The 41-year-old American won that long-awaited medal by just four hundredths of a second in women's monobob when the last competitor, Germany's Laura Nolte, made a small but costly mistake on her final run.

Meyers Taylor's sixth career medal extends her record as the most decorated Black athlete at the Winter Olympics. She's also the oldest American woman to win gold at the Winter Games.

Meyers Taylor's U.S. teammate Kaillie Armbruster Humphries was third, 0.08 off Nolte's time.

The men's slalom race had a finish like no other.

Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath was leading the race and skiing last on the second run but straddled a gate and was out. He stopped, threw his ski poles over a fence and then started walking through deep snow to the forest for some time alone.

“I thought that I would get some peace and quiet, which I didn’t,” said McGrath, who said photographers and police tracked him down.

The dramatic finish overshadowed Loic Meillard of Switzerland winning gold, and an earlier fall for giant slalom winner and South American history maker Lucas Pinheiro Braathen.

It's been an especially tough Olympics for McGrath, whose grandfather died on the day of the opening ceremony. McGrath was racing with an armband as a tribute.

The U.S. and Canada will play for the gold medal on Thursday after the U.S. routed Sweden 5-0 and Canada struggled past Switzerland 2-1 in Monday's semifinal games.

U.S. goaltender Aerin Frankel preserved a shutout streak which now stands at 331 minutes. The U.S. team is unbeaten and has allowed just one goal all tournament as it seeks a first gold medal since 2018.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin broke the all-time Olympic scoring record with two goals in an unusually narrow win for Canada.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara needed something special after placing fifth in the pairs figure skating short program. They delivered.

Miura and Kihara produced a world record score in the free skate to win Japan's first-ever pairs gold.

Georgia got its first medal in any Winter Olympic sport with Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava in second. Short-program leaders Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany dropped to the bronze medal position.

Xandra Velzeboer won her second gold medal of the Olympics in the women's 1,000-meter short track speedskating to match her Dutch teammate Jens van ’t Wout with two gold medals for the games. Italy's Arianna Fontana was chasing what would have been her 14th career Olympic medal but placed fourth.

Austria won the first-ever Olympic gold in men's super team ski jumping. The Austrians were leading when the competition was cut short due to heavy snow and wind.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States goalkeeper Aerin Frankel blocks a shot by Sweden during the second period of a women's ice hockey semifinal match at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Silver medalist China's Eileen Gu, left, hugs gold medalist Canada's Megan Oldham after the women's freestyle skiing big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Silver medalist China's Eileen Gu celebrates with her medal after the women's freestyle skiing big air finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

United States' gold medalist Elana Meyers Taylor celebrates at the finish after the women's monobob competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026.(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

United States' Hilary Knight, right, challenges for the puck with Sweden's Maja Nylen Persson during a semifinal match of women's ice hockey between the United States and Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Norway's Atle Lie McGrath walks off the course after skiing out during an alpine ski, men's slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

China's Eileen Gu waits for her scores as she competes in the women's freestyle skiing big air qualifications at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)