Team USA bobsledders Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs win silver at the Winter Olympics

Impact

During the Winter Olympics, Mic is tracking a group of athletes who are smashing records and breaking boundaries. To follow the coverage, visit our Olympics hub.

On Wednesday morning, Team USA’s Elana Meyers Taylor and Lauren Gibbs won the silver medal in the women’s bobsled competition at the Olympics. After four heats, Meyers Taylor and Gibbs finished their final heat at 3:22:53, with the German team taking gold at 3:22:45 time and Canada taking the bronze at 3:22:89.

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In their second heat, Meyers Taylor and Gibbs set a start time record of 5.21 and a track record of 50.52 at the Pyeongchang track. Meyers Taylor won the silver medal in the event at Sochi as the bobsled driver; this is Gibbs’ debut Olympics. Previously, in 2010, Meyers Taylor won a bronze as the push athlete in the sport.

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Meyers Taylor has broken gender and race barriers at the Olympics. “I feel like our sport is a highly European-dominated sport, and it’s one of those sports where people don’t see black drivers as being of an equal caliber as white drivers,” she said in an interview. “People think that people of color should just be in the back of the sled, which is crazy to hear in 2018. But I’m out there to prove them wrong, and I think there are other black drivers and drivers of different races that are out there to prove them wrong as well.”