In 2014, Full Count Softball posted over 1,200 articles and we continue our look back at what we feel were the Top 10 stories of the year, ones that had emotional impact, great human interest and drama or significance to the sport.

Today’s Article: Elana Meyers: Olympic dreams fulfilled

Ranking: #9

First Published: Jan. 3, 2014, updated on Feb 9, 2014

What It’s About: This is an amazing story of persistence and following your dream no matter where the road may take you—and in Elana Meyers’ world it took her 180 degrees from where she initially thought she’d go! Elana began playing slow-pitch softball in Georgia and, late in her high school career, switched to fastpitch. She was such a raw talent that a coach from George Washington’s new program saw her at an event and was so impressed made Elana the first recruit in school history. She went on to have great success in her four years at GW and hoped to make the Olympics in softball, but when the sport was dropped from the Games, she found another sport where her fantastic athletic skills could be used: bobsledding. Elana not only made the U.S. Team, she quickly became one of the best in the world and has medalled in the last two winter Olympic Games. She was leading in the 2014 Sochi Games when she came up just a few milliseconds short of the Gold as she and her partner Laryn Williams lost on the fourth and final run, but Elana still has a Silver and Bronze in her possession and the future looks bright for future success.

Update: Elana has continued to dominate the bobsledding world and, in a new twist, began mixed-gender bobsledding (four-man crews) in the fall with her ideal partner: her coach and now husband, Nic Taylor, who she married in April of 2014! Here’s a great CNN story on the two called “I’ll steer, you push: husband and wife break bobsled gender barrier.” In November, Elana, along with her chief competitor in the two-man bobsled, Kaillie Humphries of Canada (who just nipped Elana and her partner for the Olympic Gold), became the first women to compete with and against men in the international four-man bobsled as Meyers mixed-team came in 7^th, one spot behind Humpries’ team which finished 6^th.

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ORIGINAL STORY:

Elana Meyers: Olympic dreams fulfilled

Updated: Sunday, February 9, 2014–in honor of the start of the Sochi Olympic Games, we’re re-running the story first published on Jan. 3 detailing women’s bobsledding standout Elana Meyers, who it was announced this week will drive USA-1–the top American sled.

She will be paired with rookie Layryn Williams, who only started in bobsledding last fall.  Williams and fellow rookie Lolo Jones–who is part of the USA-3 team–come from a track background and the two will be the ninth and tenth Americans to compete in summer and winter games.

Williams won a silver medal in the 100 meters in the 2004 Olympics and a gold as part of the 4 x 100-meter relay in the 2012 Games. Jones was a hurdles favorite in 2008 and 2012, but failed to medal.

The women’s bobsledding competition kicks off Tuesday, February 18…

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When Elana Meyers was 11 and growing up in Douglasville, Ga., the 1996 Summer Olympics came to Atlanta, about 30 minutes away, and the young athlete made it a goal that she too would someday be an Olympian.

In time, she would realize that dream and even win an Olympic bronze medal, but not in the sport that she dominated throughout high school and college—softball.

Meyer’s amazing athletic journey began after she completed a stellar softball career at George Washington University and would take her into a sport she had never tried before and only seen on TV.

However, within three years of trying out for the U.S. team, the Georgia native would not only surprise in the Olympics with her medal-winning performance, she would go on to become one of the best in the world at her new sport.

And her Olympic medal would not come in the Summer, but in the Winter Games…

 

EARLY DOMINANCE

Meyers certainly had the athletic DNA to go far in athletics.  The only question was which sport it would be in.

Her father, Eddie Meyers, was a standout running back and co-captain at Navy and would go on to play in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons.  Elana, along with her older and younger sisters, Erica and Elise, respectively was always playing some sport, be it softball, basketball, soccer, volleyball or track.

She earned 11 athletic letters at Lithia Springs High and her natural speed and strength helped her shine on the field, court and track.

In the South, fastpitch softball came on much later in high school competition and Meyers would play the slowpitch version up until her senior year of high school.

Whatever the speed, she dominated as a pitcher and shortstop and earned All-County honors all four years in high school. As a junior Meyers set a school single-season record with 73 hits and was named the North Georgia Player of the Year.

Despite the late switch to fastpitch, Meyers continued to excel as a senor when she hit .437 and stole 18 bases.  She also pitched and posted a 2.04 ERA.

She played club softball with various teams including the Atlanta Rage and the Ohio Sting and tried out for the prestigious East Cobb Bullets but her talent wasn’t what held her back, it was trying to decide what sport she’d focus on.

“The real problem for me then,” Meyers remembers, “was trying to decide if softball or basketball would be my sport. I wasn’t ready to make that commitment to one sport or the other because I really thought I could get a good scholarship in basketball.”

A main factor for leaning strongly to hoops was the late conversion to fastpitch.  She wondered if she was too far behind the rest of the country to make it to the next level.

“It was definitely difficult,” she says. “My defense benefited from it because you get so much more play in the field, but offensively I struggled.  I got more into the slapping from the left side of the plate, but I was definitely at a disadvantage in not facing the (fastpitch) pitchers as much.”

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A FATEFUL GAME

The summer after she graduated from high school in 2002, Meyers was playing for the Ohio Sting in a tournament in Virginia Beach and in the stands were coaches from George Washington University.

Meyers says it was one game that caught their eye and would ultimately make her the first recruit in Colonials’ history.

“My senior year I pitched but I was playing shortstop in this game and I can still remember where the head coach [Leslie King Moore] was sitting, how the field looked and how I played.  I had a couple of hits and they told me later what impressed them about me was my athleticism and field sense.  Those are the two things that got me recruited.”

“I was raw, but they saw I could be coached and built into a good player.  I had a good fastball, was strong and powerful and could throw it in there with the best of them but I was overlooked.  I look back now and am a huge proponent of recruiting showcases because I got my scholarship from that one game.”

In large part because of her late start in fastpitch, Meyers fell through the cracks and was lightly recruited, but she couldn’t be happier with her college experience.

“George Washington came to me and said, ‘We’re going to build this program around you, we’re starting from scratch but you’ll have a unique opportunity here.”

As a freshman in 2003, Meyers practically carried the team.  She was the team captain and MVP, led the team in batting average, hits, at-bats, triples, total bases, slugging percentage, walks, steals and was the only Colonial player to start all 39 games.

She pitched in 27 games and also got the first hit, run and win in school history.

“Being a freshman starting on a new team like that was the best thing in the word,” she believes.  “It was much harder than I thought and more work, but was something that helped me for the rest of my career.”

Meyers would only pitch that first year, but would go on to start at shortstop every George Washington game the rest of her career. Her batting average improved from .245 as a freshman to .413 her last year in 2007 when she would earn 1^st Team All-Atlantic 10 honors and lead the Colonials to the school’s first ever conference tournament appearance.

“Just making the A-10 tournament, after five years of hard work, was the highlight of my career,” Meyers states.  “We got knocked out early, but just making it there was such a big accomplishment.”

The Georgia native had graduated in January of 2006 and would go on to get a graduate degree in Sports Management.

“My goal in getting the degree was to become a softball coach and it’s funny now how I’ve gone down a totally different path.”

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NEW DREAMS

Though she planned on being a coach, Meyers never lost her desire to make it to the Olympic stage.

That plan looked to be all but derailed after she finished at George Washington.  Despite a stellar college career, Meyers went to a National Team tryout and calls it “probably the worst tryout in history.”

“I was swinging at balls over my head and just did horribly.  I played in the pros for a year but had an average season and then softball got dropped so I knew that wasn’t going to be in my future.”

Still competitive and in great shape, Meyers considered trying out in other sports, including track, weightlifting and even speedskating—although she had never before slipped on a pair of skates.

She remembered watching the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games with her parents and liking bobsledding a lot, but thought, “No, I’m going to be a softball Olympian.”

When she retired from softball in 2007, the winter sport was still in the back of her head and she thought, “Why not?”

“I Googled the coach and e-mailed him and he invited me to Lake Placid (N.Y., site of the training facility) for a tryout.”

Meyers was put through a combine workout where she was testing in running and lifting events including the 30 and 60 meter dashes, the power clean, squats, the five hop jump test and shot put throw.

“I did well on that,” she recalls, “and then they take you down to the bobsled and start you slowly.  They liked how I was faster and stronger already at that point than many of the athletes already there and said I showed good potential with my athleticism.”

With her explosive start and excellent core strength, Meyers had the natural ability to be a standout push athlete.  She says it took her a good month to “be OK,” but within the first year she was racing in the World Championships as the brakeman in a two-car sled.

A year later, she won a World Cup bronze medal with driver Shauna Rohbock and remembers thinking to herself, “I can really do this.”

In 2009 she took silver and in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games surprised everyone by capturing the bronze with partner Erin Pac.

“I was over the moon about that,” she laughs.  “To come away with an Olympic medal, you can’t be too disappointed.”

“I was injured early and it looked shaky if I’d make the team. I had been the top brakewoman and originally had been on the No. 1 team but was moved to the two team and not expected to medal. We were the only ones that believed we could.”

Click here to see an interview with Elana Meyers after winning the Olympic bronze medal

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BIG PLANS FOR 2014… AND BEYOND

After the Vancouver success, Meyers was converted to driver and though admitting she’s had to learn a lot, says, “It’s been a rapid ascent, a whirlwind, but we’ve won two World Championships.”

This past season, Meyers has added to her trophy collection, winning four more World Cup medals and claiming the silver at Worlds.

While her push strength helped her excel as a brakewoman, as a driver she and partner Aja Evans set several start records this year including one on the Sochi (Russia) track where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games will be held.  She will be driving USA-1 in 2014 and will be one of the favorites to win.

Women’s bobsled has only been part of the Olympics since 2002 and the Americans have medaled in each of those games (gold in ’02, silver in ’06 and Meyers’ bronze in 2012).

If she can win another medal, it will be a first for a U.S. female bobsledder but the former softball player has higher aspirations.

“I’m looking to compete in 2018 and maybe in 2022,” Meyers comments. “I’ll go as far as I can and keep competing as long as I can.”

For now, she’s focusing on winning a Gold in Sochi and has been training with the reigning Olympic champion driver, Kaillie Humphries, of Canada.

“She’s the top dog and we’re working together to try and put on the greatest show on earth (at the Olympics).  We’ve been to Phoenix, Chula Vista, Calif., Calgrary, Atlanta, Lake Placid—all over the country—so I could train with her and be in a great training group with the best resources.”

Watch Elana Meyers work out and compete

Two months after the Winter Games close in April, Meyers will take another big step in life as she and fellow bobsledder Nic Taylor will get married.  Last January at the World Championships in Switzerland, Taylor proposed to Meyers while she was still on the podium receiving her silver medal.

Beyond 2014 and even after her days of competition are over, Meyers knows what she wants to do.

With an MBA in Finance, her next goal is to become the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Having adjusted on the fly when her Olympic softball dreams fell through and shine even brighter in another field, nothing seems impossible for the ambitious athlete.

“I want to make a difference with the greatest number of athletics possible,” she concludes. “I want to make a difference overall and really have a passion in helping athletes reach their goals.  There’d be no better way to do that than being CEO of an organization like the USOC.”