Elana Meyers Taylor speaks at the George Washington University commencement ceremony on May 20, 2018 in Washington.
Add one more honor to Elana Meyers Taylor’s impressive list of accomplishments.
The three-time Olympic medalist in women’s bobsled received a Doctorate of Public Service during Sunday’s commencement ceremony at George Washington University in the nation’s capital.
Meyers Taylor was honored by her alma mater, where she was played softball from 2003-2007 and was a member of the university’s inaugural softball team. She still holds the school record for single-season batting average at .414. Meyers Taylor had previously earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees from GW.
In 2014 she became the first softball alum elected to the GW Athletic Hall of Fame and her number with the Colonials was retired later that year.
Meyers Taylor had dreams of playing softball at the Olympics but once the sport was dropped from the Olympic program she tried her hand at bobsled. Beginning the sport as a brakeman, she earned bronze with pilot Erin Pac at the Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010. She then switched to the driver’s seat and won consecutive silver medals in Sochi and PyeongChang with Lauryn Williams and Lauren Gibbs.
She and Williams just missed capturing the gold in 2014, when their four-run time was just one-tenth of a second behind Canada’s Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse. Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs were even closer to winning gold in 2018, just seven-hundredths of a second behind Germany’s Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz.
Besides also winning two world championship golds as a bobsledder (2015, 2017), Meyers Taylor’s versatile athletic achievements include two caps appearances with the U.S. rugby sevens team.
She married fellow bobsledder Nic Taylor, who was a 2018 Olympic alternate, in 2014.
Steve Drumwright is a journalist based in Murrieta, California. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
