This time, American’s silver worth celebrating

DAEGWALLYEONG, South Korea — The only thing that changed was the context, and that made all the difference.

The first time Elana Meyers Taylor won an Olympic silver medal, she couldn’t sleep in the nights after. She was so bothered by what had happened that she opened up her computer and let her emotions bleed out. “I need to write,” she began, and she talked about how she was “haunted” by her last run down the course, replaying the errors in her mind. She said she’d be second- guessing herself for the next four years. She wondered if she had “choked in front of the whole world.”

Then, Wednesday night, Meyers Taylor, along with her new teammate, Lauren Gibbs, won another silver medal, edged out by a pair from Germany. This time, the gap between first and second place was even smaller — .07 seconds — than it had been in Sochi.

Meyers Taylor, 33, though, was ecstatic.

It was her second silver medal, but it was the first time she wanted to celebrate one.

And as she did, her family and friends shouted in the stands, “Four more years! Four more years!”

“In Sochi, I felt like I lost a gold,” Meyers Taylor said. “Here, we won a silver.”

In doing so, America’s top female bobsledder earned a subtle form of redemption.

In place of a gold medal, Meyers Taylor got something else: proof that she could perform as she wanted to, that under pressure she could make the calculations that define this sport’s miniscule margins.

Competing in her third Olympics, Meyers Taylor has now won two silvers and a bronze; the U. S. has placed at least one team on the podium in all five Olympics that women’s bobsled has been a sport.

“I won’t be writing the same blog” this time, Meyers Taylor said. “I am so proud. All you can ask of yourself is to go out there and give your best, and I truly believe I gave my best.”