BEIJING, China — Elana Meyers Taylor, the champion bobsledder and Olympic medal favorite from Douglasville, Georgia, is clear to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics following a second negative COVID test, she said Saturday.
Taylor told the TODAY Show she was now good to go following the negative test. She had previously shared with 11Alive her first negative COVID test.
The bobsledder had tested positive shortly after arriving in China for the Winter Olympics, and had been isolating in her hotel room since - marching symbolically in her room on Friday for the Opening Ceremony after her U.S. teammates had chosen her as a flag-bearer.
She told TODAY she was looking forward to competing and inspiring her son.
Taylor had also been training in whatever way she could inside the hotel room, including pacing the room and riding a stationary bike.
Just Saturday morning, she had shared on Twitter that she'd gotten a barbell into her room.
Taylor is a strong hopeful for gold in the monobob event making its debut at the 2022 Winter Olympics, after an electric 2021-22 Bobsleigh World Cup season in which she beat out her chief rival, fellow American Kaillie Humphries, for the monobob championship.
She compiled four individual wins and a second-place finish in the 23-race series and also finished atop the two-woman standings, making her the World Cup's overall champion.
The 37-year-old won a silver medal in the two-woman bobsled event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
She is also a two-time world champion in the two-woman event.