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Three-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor to carry U.S. flag at closing ceremony

ASSOCIATED PRESS / FEB. 14
                                Elana Meyers Taylor, of the United States, celebrates winning the silver medal in the women’s monobob at the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Yanqing district of Beijing.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / FEB. 14

Elana Meyers Taylor, of the United States, celebrates winning the silver medal in the women’s monobob at the 2022 Winter Olympics in the Yanqing district of Beijing.

American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist, will get to carry the United States flag in an Olympic ceremony after all.

Two weeks after she missed out on the chance to carry the flag in the opening ceremony because she was in isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus, Meyers Taylor, 37, was chosen by her U.S. teammates for the same honor in the closing ceremony on Sunday in Beijing.

“I was so honored to be named the opening ceremony flag-bearer, but after not being able to carry the flag, it’s even more humbling to lead the United States at the closing ceremony,” Meyers Taylor said in a statement released by U.S. Olympic officials.

Meyers Taylor was chosen along with curler John Shuster to carry the flag during the opening ceremony but had to decline after she tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after arriving in China. She was replaced by speedskater Brittany Bowe, a three-time Olympian chosen as an alternate by her teammates.

Meyers Taylor, 37, recovered in time to compete, and this week she won the silver medal in the inaugural monobob competition. She now has a medal from four straight Olympics, adding to silvers in Pyeongchang in 2018 and Sochi in 2014, and a bronze in Vancouver in 2010. She was set to compete again Saturday in the two-woman bobsled, sitting in third place after the first two of four heats.


This article originally appeared in The New York Times.


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