Bobsleigh-Veteran Americans racing with new perspective on medals and life

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 14 : American bobsleigh rivals Elana Meyers Taylor and Kaillie Armbruster Humphries have 81 years, 11 Olympics, nine medals and three children between them but are in no mood to hand over the stage to the next generation just yet.

They go head to head in the monobob competition on Sunday and Monday when the first bobsleigh medals of the Games will be decided, having taken gold and silver when the event made its debut four years ago.

Armbruster Humphries won it, having previously claimed two golds and a bronze in the Two-Woman event for Canada after starting her Olympic journey as an unused alternate 20 years ago. 

She switched nationalities in 2021 after a long and fractious fallout with Canadian officials over harassment claims.

Meyers Taylor was second in the monobob in 2022, adding to her haul of two silvers and two bronze medals in Two-Woman.

More medals look on the cards in Cortina, with the Two-Woman to come after the Monobob, where training finished on Saturday.

The 41-year-old Meyers Taylor clocked four top-three times, with Armbruster Humphries, 40, fastest in the third round before opting to sit out Saturday's final sessions.

Standing in their way will be Germany's World Cup champion Laura Nolte and her compatriot Lisa Buckwitz, both of whom have looked sharp all week.

BATTLE FOR GOLD

For the two Americans, however, the battle for gold has become something of a secondary issue as they embrace motherhood and activism.

Meyers Taylor has two sons, both born deaf and one with Down syndrome, and the joy of raising them, along with the challenges those issues have brought, has given her a new perspective to racing down the ice at 85mph.

Asked this week what it would mean if she finally bagged an