By Michaela Gordoni
Elana Meyers Taylor is keeping her head up despite competing in the Olympics while parenting two young special needs kids, not to mention recovering from a terrible crash.
“I have become more risk-averse,” the mom of two said. “It’s a lot bigger picture to try and figure things out when you’re the primary caregiver.”
The five-time Olympian is married to an NBA conditioning coach and former Olympian, Nic Taylor.
“It’s chaotic,” she admitted. “I get plenty of snuggles, but I don’t get much ‘me time.’”
“Doing this with one kid was crazy enough. Doing this with two is just insane. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Meyers Taylor said.
“You start to think about things like, what is this going to be like in 10 years?” the 41-year-old told She Knows. “Is my body going be able to run around with them and do all the things that I want to do with them?”
The Taylors have never had it easy as parents. Their 5-year-old, Nico, was in the NICU immediately after his birth. He has Down syndrome and hearing loss.
“We had tried for a year to have Nico, so we didn’t do any of the genetic testing beforehand,” she said. “For us, it didn’t matter. We were going to keep him regardless.”
Related: ‘Main Character’ Olympic Shooter Breaks the Internet With Mom Moment
“You think you’re going to take your baby home the next day after delivery.” Instead, he had to stay in the hospital “on air and feeding tubes.”
She was never concerned about his diagnosis.
“He was my son, and I had the chance to fall in love with him first,” Meyers Taylor said. “You hear these stories about people who have the diagnosis in utero, and they’re shocked, they’re worried. I didn’t have that.”
But, “everybody talks about a mother’s instinct, but this kind of stuff does not come naturally to anybody,” she said about catering to a child’s special needs.
Noah, 3, also has bilateral hearing loss. She and her husband learned ASL, and they decided for each son to get a cochlear implant to help him hear.
“They’re controversial in the Deaf community,” Meyers Taylor said. But, “We really felt that it gives them the best opportunity to live within the hearing world and have spoken language but also live within the Deaf community.”
And “anytime you’re putting your kid under surgery and trusting somebody to cut into their head, like, it’s a big deal,” she said.
One of Noah’s implants broke last summer.
“It was the worst possible summer to be doing surgeries, because it’s when I was trying to prepare for the Olympics,” Meyers Taylor recalled. “But at the end of the day, it’s more important that he has those cochlear implants that are working than it is for me to go to the Olympics, as strange as that might sound. That’s going to impact the rest of his life.”
“And me going to another Olympics? Yeah, it’s a huge goal of mine. But it doesn’t come before my kids.”
She told Olympics.com that before she had children, what motivated her was getting gold. All that changed when she had her boys.
“With my kids, there is so much more motivation into the journey and into making sure that this is really something I want to do because I really have to think about it,” she said. “Every moment I’m on the ice is a moment that I’m not with them. So I have to make it worth it.”
In January, Meyers Taylor shared on her Instagram, “Parenting kids with disabilities is hard and exhausting and there are always unique challenges that aren’t covered in any parenting book. But as much as my kids need me, the reality is I’m the one who needed them. ❤️”
On Monday, Taylor won her first gold medal. As her husband watched her on the podium with teary eyes, he used sign language to tell Noah, “That’s Mommy!”
After she won, she embraced her teammate, Macy Lynn, and her two boys while holding the U.S. flag.
It’s amazing that a mom of any two young children — but especially children with special needs — can accomplish so much. Taylor is a true inspiration.
Read Next: How This US Track Star Supports Moms at Olympics
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +2Share:
– Content: +1