On February 16, 2026, American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor won the women's monobob competition at the Milan Cortina Olympics with a combined time of 3:57.93 across four runs. Germany's Laura Nolte, who led heading into the final run, finished 0.04 seconds behind in second place after hitting walls during her final descent. American Kaillie Humphries, the defending gold medalist from 2022, finished third with a time of 3:58.05.
Meyers Taylor, 41, became the oldest American woman to win gold at a Winter Olympics. This was her sixth Olympic medal across five Games (2010-2026), tying speed skater Bonnie Blair for most medals by a U.S. woman in Winter Olympics history. She previously won three silver and two bronze medals but never gold. Humphries, 40, earned her fifth Olympic medal across five Games, having competed for Canada before switching to represent the United States in 2019.
Both athletes are mothers who returned to elite competition after childbirth. Meyers Taylor has two sons, born in 2020 and 2022. Humphries gave birth to her son in June 2024 after undergoing IVF treatment following an endometriosis diagnosis. The monobob event, in which a single athlete both pushes and pilots the sled, made its Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games.
