CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Five-time Olympian Elana Meyers Taylor of the United States claimed her first Olympic gold medal in the women's monobob at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games here on Monday.

(L-R) Silver medallist Germany's Laura Nolte, gold medallist USA's Elana Meyers Taylor and bronze medallist USA's Kaillie Armbruster Humphries pose for a selfie on the podium of the bobsleigh women's monobob at Cortina Sliding Centre during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 16, 2026. (Photo: AFP)

At 41, Meyers Taylor added another milestone to her career. She had previously collected two silvers in the two-woman event in 2014 and 2018, as well as two bronzes in 2010 and 2022, along with a monobob silver at Beijing 2022.

At the Cortina Sliding Center, defending two-woman champion Laura Nolte of Germany dominated the first three heats but made a costly mistake in her final run. Meyers Taylor erased a 0.15-second deficit to secure victory with a combined time of 3:57.93, edging the German by 0.04 seconds.

"I'm feeling great. I'm a little tired, the adrenaline's wearing off a little bit, but I'm super excited to finally have a gold medal and to have worked so hard all these years.

"It means so much to the support staff around me, to my friends, my family, everyone behind me who's worked so hard to even get me to the starting line, let alone to win a gold medal. It's been incredible," Meyers Taylor said.

"After four runs, to finish in silver place with four hundredths of a second to gold is very sad, because I was leading for three runs. And I was sure I could make it in the last run," Nolte said. "I made one mistake at the top that took all my time and speed away, and I already knew it would be hard to remain in the lead."

Defending champion Kaillie Armbruster Humphries of the United States took bronze in 3:58.05.

The 40-year-old embraced her child after the race and said she felt proud to share the podium with fellow mother Meyers Taylor.

"I gave birth a year and a half ago, so I was not fully expecting this. 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," she said.

China's Ying Qing finished 12th, while Huai Mingming placed 16th.