Elana Meyers Taylor hopes to "throw down two good runs" on second day of monobob

Elana Meyers Taylor lies fourth after the first day of the inaugural Olympic women’s monobob competition on Sunday (13 February).

Meyers Taylor was the fourth athlete, and the first American, to go in the new discipline, and is 1.32 seconds behind teammate Kaillie Humphries who leads the way.

Afterwards, the 37-year-old told Olympics.com it was "a blessing" to make the start line and that she hopes to "throw down two good runs and see what happens".

"These things are really difficult to drive! You can see from the results – they’re all over the shop." - Elana Meyers Taylor

The three-time Olympic medallist is excited to be just competing after a Covid scare threatened her participation.

Meyers Taylor tested positive for the virus on arrival and had to spend several days in an isolation hotel away from her husband and young son, forcing her to miss flagbearing duties for Team USA at the Opening Ceremony.

She was relieved to be among the 20 athletes who lined up for the start of the new female-only event that is debuting at Beijing 2022.

Her teammate, perennial rival and former Canadian Humphries, leads by over a second overnight and looks bound for a third Olympic gold.

Meyers Taylor said, "Aside from Kaillie… she’s really throwing it down! The rest of us are just battling out heat after heat.

"The runs are just all over the shop, so the biggest thing is trying to be as consistent as possible so tomorrow I’m just going to throw down two good runs and see what happens."

She is just one-tenth of a second behind Germany's Laura Nolte as she bids to add to her bronze from Vancouver 2010 and silvers from Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.

But for Meyers Taylor making the start has been a victory in itself.

"It's been really hard