The Elana Meyers Taylor Exception

 One of my favorite podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, does a weekly segment on Fridays when all panelists/hosts are asked what is making them happy this week. I find it both enjoyable to listen to and am reminded that this practice that should be more widely undertaken. 

So this week, what is making me happy is Elana Meyers Taylor and her gold medal win in monobob at the Milano Cortina Olympics. This win makes her a six-time medalist (with one event to go)--and the most decorated woman bobsledder. 

Sidebar: I was slightly disturbed, when looking for stories to link, to find this one from Savannah with the headline Who is Elana Meyers Taylor? Le sigh, Georgia. [Also, it is getting more and more difficult to find media outlets to link to that don't make me ill, and I still feel like I am not doing a great job at this. Still, FU CBS. No clicks for you!]

This USA Today piece provides some history on her athletic career--including how she got into bobsled--and her legacy. It is expected she will retire after these games. Her influence on the sport--including advocacy for the 4-women event--is incredible. She has inspired so many other women--including/especially Black women--to get into the sport. And not by mere presence--she finds these women and convinces them to try to the sport. 

So what's the deal with the "exception" part? As we discussed in my sport sociology class this week, coverage of women Olympians tends to be pretty narrow and presented through lenses of heterosexuality, including motherhood. This is usually fairly cringe coverage when broadcasters are trying so hard to make these elite athletes "accessible" to the public--as if that is why we watch sports. 

Meyers Taylor has two children. This has been discussed during the coverage this year. She herself discusses it, especially in terms of advocacy for children (both her boys are deaf and one has Down Syndrome); but it does not dominate the conversation. And I think part of this is because the way she moves about the world as an athlete, partner, mother, and advocate says so much and does so in a way that the mainstream media cannot fully comprehend. 

What do I mean? Well the scene at the finish line as she waited for the last sled to come down to see where she would place--and the subsequent celebration said so much. Both of her children were there along with her nanny. One, they were the team--the support. They were who she wanted to share the moment. Childcare is complicated. This woman is paid by Meyers Taylor and is arguably crucial to her being able to compete. And she is someone who shares in the successes and failures. The presence of the nanny (I never heard her name) was important. Occasionally I hear about nannies for the women tennis players who have children--but they are never seen. This form of childcare becomes invisible labor because it ruins the (false) narrative that women can do it all without having to outsource some of the labor. 

Also on the platform we saw her oldest son, Nico, shoes off (to be fair, reports from Italy say it has been unseasonably warm) and doing his own thing. Neither mother nor nanny are trying to control his behavior, to make him look more acceptable. I suspect that many a parent looked at that scene and could relate to the shoe struggle (or the tag is too itchy or the coat sleeves too tight). 

It felt honest. It costs money to have and care for children; it takes time and patience that sometimes is provided by people who are paid to do so. All childcare is labor--whether paid or not. Raising children is hard. Raising children with disabilities in an ableist--and racist--culture is very hard. I saw all of that in that finish line scene.

And so much joy and jubilation.