Elana Meyers Taylor: "This has been a dream of dreams."

"This has been a dream of dreams," Elana Meyers Taylor told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview on Sunday (20 February).

Three weeks ago, she might not have been able to have seen that ending coming.

Life handed Meyers Taylor lemons, and she made them into the fourth and fifth Olympic medals of her career.

The American bobsledder's fourth Olympic Games got off to a tough start with the 37-year-old, and her family, testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Asymptomatic, Meyers Taylor leaned on husband Nic Taylor, who also serves as her strength and conditioning coach and chiropractor, to stay ready for competition.

"It definitely wasn't easy," Meyers Taylor explained. "They got me to the point where I could at least get to the starting line, and I knew if we could get to the starting line, we would do good things.

"The other thing is my husband is just one of the most positive, optimistic people I've ever met. He never gave up. Every single day, he's like, 'We're going to do this, we're going to do this.

"You know, I'm crying my eyes out in isolation and he's like, 'No, we're going to do this. You're OK. Everything's OK.' He just kept reminding me that we got it."

"A moment that I don't know that anybody else will ever get"

Even before Meyers Taylor made it out of isolation or to the bobsleigh track, she had an Olympic moment that is all hers.

She was selected via a vote among her Team USA teammates to carry the U.S. flag at the Opening Ceremony.

Unable to do so, the honour went to the second highest vote-getter: speed skater Brittany Bowe.

Meyers Taylor called Bowe to let her know she'd be filling in.

"As much as it was hard to not carry it myself, to see her carry it and to have that moment to give that to her was really cool. That's a moment that I don't know that anybody else will ever get," said Meyers Taylor.

"To have that now as part of my memories, you know, me and Brittany will be tied forever, if we weren't before. We were friends before this, but now I think we're tied forever."

At Sunday's Closing Ceremony, Meyers Taylor carried the Stars and Stripes into the stadium.

"It might not shine like gold, but in my heart it shines even brighter."

On the track, Meyer Taylor's Games got off a start that she owed to work done off the track.

A fierce advocate for women, monobob made its Olympic debut in Beijing in part due to Meyers Taylor and Kallie Humphries' work speaking on the importance of gender equality in sport.

"It matters for a couple of reasons to have that event," said Meyers Taylor. "First, because it gives women two opportunities a medal at the Games. Having that and being on par with the men having those two chances is just one more step closer to equity.

And she seized that opportunity - part of the International Olympic Committee's prioritisation of gender equality at the Olympics - to take silver behind Humphries.

Meyers Taylor hopes it will have another effect.

"The other thing is with monobob, because all the sleds are the same, it is very limiting on the equipment advantage and it allows a lot more countries to get in."

On the penultimate day of the Games, Meyers Taylor added a fifth Olympic medal to her collection as she won bronze in the two-woman bob with brakewoman Sylvia Hoffman.

That medal means she has reached the podium in every Olympic race in which she has entered, something which barely seemed possible two weeks ago.

"How we started... I had no idea that this would even be possible. So, to come on the other end and have two medals and yeah, you know, they're not gold medals, but they feel like gold medals, for sure," said Meyers Taylor. "It might not shine like gold, but in my heart it shines even brighter."