Winter Olympics: American bobsled in second with Elana Meyers Taylor, Lauren Gibbs

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – When your run is slowed by a significant scrape of the wall and you still set a course record, you’ve got things going in the sport of bobsledding.

Elana Meyers Taylor has got things going. She also has a fight on her hands. She is in second place after the first two heats of the women’s bobsled, 0.07 of a second behind Germany’s Mariama Jamanka. The final two heats are Wednesday.

"We still have room in the tank,” Meyers Taylor, who has been nursing a sore left Achilles tendon, said afterward. “Coming off this week of training and really getting into it, you know, these are my first full-out pushes in a while, so we’re ready to come out and lay it down tomorrow. We’re going to come out and do the best we can. Lauren pushed us really well today.”

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Meyers Taylor, the 2014 silver medalist in Sochi and 2010 bronze medalist in Vancouver, is intent on being a 2018 gold medalist in Pyeongchang.

She and pusher Lauren Gibbs got off to a good start Tuesday, setting that record of 50.52 seconds at the Olympic Sliding Centre on their first run, despite some obvious miscues that can be cleaned up.

But their second run of 50.81 seconds put them just behind the German team of Jamanka and pusher Lisa Buckwitz. And Meyers Taylor is not interested right now in a repeat of Sochi. Germany’s Stephanie Schneider is in third, 0.23 behind Meyers Taylor, and American Jamie Greubel Poser is 0.02 out of third, setting up what should be a pressure-packed final two heats.

“Four years ago, I was just trying to hold onto a lead,” Meyers Taylor said. “Tomorrow, I’m just going to go and attack the track. No matter what happens, I’m going to go down swinging. That’s all you can do in this sport.”