TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — U.S. Olympic women’s bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor is going to race against men.
And when she does, it’ll be a family affair.
Taking advantage of a new rule by bobsled’s worldwide governing body that essentially declared four-man bobsledding gender neutral, Meyers Taylor has decided to compete in that portion of the U.S. team selection races next month. When she gets behind the controls of the bigger sled, she will be joined by push athletes Dustin Greenwood, Adrian Adams and Nic Taylor — who just happens to be her husband.
“I think it was somewhere in the vows,” said Meyers Taylor, who was married this year.
It’s unknown at this point if any of the other U.S. female pilots will take advantage of the chance to race a four-man. Until now, women have only driven two-person sleds in major competition.
Meyers Taylor, a former George Washington softball player from Douglasville, Georgia, will be driving the four-man in competition at the 2002 Olympic track in Park City next month.
She’s a two-time Olympic medalist, first getting bronze as a push athlete at the 2010 Vancouver Games, then transitioning to the pilot’s seat and winning silver with Lauryn Williams at the Sochi Games this year.
Her spot on the women’s World Cup team is already secured, as is one for Sochi bronze-medalist-driver Jamie Greubel Poser.
Meyers Taylor and Canadian gold medalist Kaillie Humphries have been widely expected as the two female pilots most likely to try to compete in four-man. Humphries lobbied for the chance for years, and U.S. officials also have said they supported the notion of opening the front seat of four-man sleds to female drivers.
It remains possible that women could drive in the season-opening World Cup at Lake Placid, New York, in December, though any of the female pilots on the circuit would have to show proficiency before being cleared to drive the bigger sled — just as male pilots would.
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