Fresh off of her first-ever gold medal, to go with her five other Olympic medals, Elana Meyers Taylor is once again in position to add to her legacy. She won the monobob event at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy, on Monday, and is set for the two-woman bobsled competition on Friday and Saturday alongside brakewoman Jadin O’Brien.
But, the pair’s push for another medal nearly ended in tragic fashion before it ever started.
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During a January training run ahead of a World Cup race in Switzerland, Meyers Taylor and O’Brien were involved in a violent crash. Their sled lost control, slammed into the wall multiple times and flipped. O’Brien was ejected from the sled, flipped in the air, landed on her back and slid down the ice. She thought she was paralyzed.
Meyers Taylor continued down the track in the sled, and only a small weight plate, installed the week prior, kept her from being impaled by one of the sled’s axles. Even for Meyers Taylor — a veteran of more than 20 years in the sport — the crash stood out.
“Elana has been doing bobsled for 20 years, and she said that was one of the most violent, horrific crashes she’s ever seen or been a part of,” O’Brien, a former track and field national champion at Notre Dame, told Notre Dame Magazine earlier this month.
O’Brien eventually regained feeling, and hospital X-rays showed no broken bones. That was enough for her to know she was good.
“I knew that in order to make it to the Olympics, the more data the coaches have on you, the better,” O’Brien said. “And I also knew that the odds of me getting another race were very slim.”
Her path to this point has been anything but typical, but it’s a path marked by perseverance. She won three NCAA titles in the pentathlon and another in the heptathlon at Notre Dame before being recruited to the sport of bobsled by Meyers Taylor.
The 41-year-old Meyers Taylor, one of the most accomplished athletes in her sport, is also the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympic history. She entered these Olympics with three silver medals and two bronze medals, then added to her trove on Monday, and is hunting for yet another alongside O’Brien. They are considered medal contenders.
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But, their connection extends far beyond the ice.
“Her being a Christian strengthens our bond and gives us a competitive edge over other pilot-brakeman combinations,” O’Brien told the National Catholic Register earlier this month. “Faith is our extra tool.”
Faith in Christ has long been central to Meyers Taylor’s life and career.
“I pray before every race, every time I walk to the line,” she said in a 2022 interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I work every day to live a life that’s Christlike.”
Meyers Taylor came to faith during her time as a softball player at George Washington University and was baptized in 2013 alongside her husband, Nic.
“God put me here for a specific reason, and I don’t think it’s just to win medals,” Meyers Taylor said in a 2014 interview with Athletes in Action. “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.”
O’Brien shares Meyers Taylor’s sentiments.
“By having that mindset and having that as my focus honestly alleviates a lot of the pressure that comes with competing at a very high level,” she said during a Notre Dame Women For Good event. “The reason I’m competing no longer becomes for my glory, but it becomes for Someone bigger.”
Long before she reached the Olympic stage, O’Brien faced a serious health challenge. As an infant, she contracted strep throat, but the infection lingered and eventually developed into Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS), impacting multiple organs and severely affecting her mental and emotional health.
“I went from being a happy, light, silly little girl to a shadow of a human,” she said in a Notre Dame documentary titled “Offering It Up.” “I was not there.”
For a period of time, she battled fear and intrusive thoughts, unsure what her future would hold.
“There was a time when she didn’t think she’d even be alive to go to college,” her mother, Leslie, said in the documentary.
Over time, O’Brien’s health improved, so much so that she became one of the top collegiate multi-event track and field athletes in the country.
“I have learned to never underestimate myself again,” she said as the camera panned to her NCAA trophies and medals. “Each of these tells a story. It’s a story of grit. It’s a story of overcoming the odds.”
That same approach showed up this bobsledding season, when she was recruited to the sport by Meyers Taylor. As a brakewoman in a deep field, O’Brien was only guaranteed one race, in Latvia in December.
“If I didn’t perform well at that one race, I would have no more race opportunities,” she told Notre Dame Magazine. “So whatever chance you get, you kind of have to take it and prove yourself.”
She did just that, teaming with Meyers Taylor for a fourth-place finish in an 18-team field. The result earned them another opportunity — the one that nearly ended in disaster.
Instead, it became part of their story of God’s sustaining grace. Together, they have reached the Olympics, and a medal is staring them in the face. Both Meyers Taylor and O’Brien are staring back with the eyes of faith.
“If you think too far ahead in the future, it’s easy to get distracted,” O’Brien told the National Catholic Register. “Handing all those worries and anxieties over to God and tackling one thing at a time helps you accomplish incredible things.”
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