American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, a silver medalist in the women’s two-person bobsleigh at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, is setting her sights now on racing with men.
In September, FIBT, the sport’s world governing body, announced that the four-man event previously only open to all-male teams would now field four-person teams independent of gender (the sport will retain separate two-man and two-woman events).
According to the Associated Press, Meyers Taylor officially decided last week that she will race in a November event at the 2002 Olympic track in Park City, Utah and attempt to qualify a mixed-gender four-person sled on the World Cup circuit this winter. Her push athletes — all men — will be Dustin Greenwood, Adrian Adams and Nic Taylor (who is also her husband). Canada’s Kaillie Humphries, who won gold medals both in Sochi and Vancouver 2010 and had actively lobbied FIBT for the opportunity to drive a four-person sled, plans to race with men this winter too.
Bobsled, one of the original five Winter Olympic sports, has not previously had a four-woman competition — it only added the two-woman version to the Olympics at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. In the interest of gender parity, it decided to open the four-man event to women as opposed to adding a separate four-woman competition. Because bobsled tracks are also used for luge and skeleton racing, adding yet another event was deemed impractical.
With the announcement in September, the FIBT did not give countries a ton of time to plan for the change, as competitions begin in mid-November and national qualification races are happening this week. Though the 2018 Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea are still a few years away, qualifying for World Cup events, which begin next month in New York, would be the first step to potentially driving a four-person sled at the Olympics. As the best women sled drivers in the world, Humphries and Meyers Taylor are the most likely to have early success in this new mixed format.
Larger sleds, faster speeds, and the short adjustment time may pose early challenges to women like Meyers Taylor and Humphries, but they are clearly confident they can race with men. So is FIBT president Ivo Ferriani, who announced the rule change in September by saying, “I strongly believe women can drive a four-man and be competitive. For us, it’s the natural evolution of our sport.”