Elana Meyers Taylor announces pregnancy during break from bobsled competition

By OlympicTalkSep 15, 2022, 10:25 AM EDT

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Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated U.S. Olympic bobsledder in history with medals in all five of her Olympic events, is pregnant with her second child and will not compete this upcoming season, her agent said.

Meyers Taylor, who came back from having son Nico on Feb. 22, 2020, won a silver and bronze medal at the Beijing Winter Games and become the most decorated Black U.S. Winter Olympian in history. She is on a previously announced indefinite break from competition.

“I’ll take some time to really decide what my career looks like going forward, but I know I’m not done being in a bobsled,” Meyers Taylor, a Georgia native, told NBC’s Atlanta affiliate after the Olympics in March. “Whether that means 2026 Olympics, I don’t know yet.”

Meyers Taylor cited a desire to race on the World Cup circuit in the U.S., which she hasn’t been able to do the past two seasons because it didn’t make North American stops due to the pandemic.

“I want that opportunity again,” she said in March. “So I’ll be sliding at some point, competitive sliding, but what exactly that looks like four years down the road, I have no idea yet.”

She could go for a first Olympic gold medal in 2026 and to tie the current U.S. female record of five Winter Olympic appearances. At 41, she would break the record for oldest U.S. female Winter Olympian in a sport other than curling, according to Olympedia.org.

Meyers Taylor, who converted to bobsled from softball, is already the only U.S. Winter Olympian to enter at least five medal events and win a medal in all of them.

She is tied for fourth on the U.S. career Winter Olympic medals list behind Apolo Ohno (eight) and Bonnie Blair and Bode Miller (six). Speed skaters Eric Heiden and Chad Hedrick also won five medals. All of those athletes competed in at least seven career Winter Olympic events, more than Meyers Taylor’s five.

This past February, she was voted by her peers to be the U.S. flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony but after testing positive for COVID-19 was replaced by speed skater Brittany Bowe. Meyers Taylor later served as flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony.

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Team Meyers Taylor 4man hitting the ice soon! 👶🏽

Volume on! 📢

🎥: @TroyFilm @TeamUSA @USABS @IBSFsliding @NBCOlympics @andMother_org @WomensSportsFdn pic.twitter.com/nrSxa6yzPZ

— Elana Meyers Taylor OLY (@eamslider24) September 14, 2022

Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz set French Open semifinal showdown

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 6:59 PM EDT

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will play in the French Open semifinals on Friday in the most anticipated match of the tournament.

Each man advanced with a quarterfinal win on Tuesday.

Djokovic, eyeing a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam men’s singles title, rallied past 11th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-4. The Serb reached his 45th career major semifinal, one shy of Roger Federer‘s men’s record.

Later Tuesday, top seed Alcaraz crushed fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (5) to consolidate his status as the favorite in Friday’s showdown.

“This match, everyone wants to watch,” Alcaraz said. “I really wanted to play this match as well. I always say that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Alcaraz, who at last year’s U.S. Open became the first male teen to win a major since Rafael Nadal in 2005, is at this event the youngest man to be the top seed at a major since Boris Becker at 1987 Wimbledon.

The Djokovic-Alcaraz semifinal will produce the clear favorite for Sunday’s final given left-handed 14-time French Open champion Nadal is out this year with a hip injury and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev lost in the first round. Djokovic and Nadal share the record 22 men’s major titles.

Djokovic and Alcaraz met once, with Alcaraz winning last year on clay in Madrid 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (5).

“[Alcaraz] brings a lot of intensity on the court,” Djokovic said, before breaking into a smile. “Reminds me of someone from his country that plays with a left hand.”

Alcaraz and Djokovic were set to be on opposite halves of the draw — and thus not able to meet until the final — until Medvedev won the last top-level clay event before the French Open to move ahead of Djokovic in the rankings. That meant Djokovic had a 50 percent chance to wind up in Alcaraz’s half, and that’s what the random draw spit out two weeks ago.

Earlier Tuesday in the first two women’s quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova advanced to face off in Thursday’s semifinals.

Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, swept Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 to complete her set of semifinals in all four Grand Slams. Sabalenka will take the No. 1 ranking from Iga Swiatek if Swiatek loses before the final, or if Sabalenka makes the final and Swiatek does not win the title.

Svitolina, a former world No. 3, returned to competition in April from childbirth.

Muchova took out 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 7-5, 6-2, to make her second major semifinal after the 2021 Australian Open.

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 6, 2023, 5:16 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

But the No. 1 seed is Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s U.S. Open to become, at 19, the youngest man to win a major since Nadal’s first French Open title in 2005.

Now Alcaraz looks to become the second-youngest man to win at Roland Garros since 1989, after Nadal of course.

Alcaraz missed the Australian Open in January due to a right leg injury, but since went 30-3 with four titles. Notably, he has not faced Djokovic this year. They meet in Friday’s semifinals.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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