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COVID isolation takes flag out of Elana Meyers Taylor's hands for Opening Ceremony

BEIJING — Elana Meyers Taylor spent the opening day of the 2022 Olympics confined to a few-foot-wide crevice of an unfamiliar hotel room, with half-unpacked clothes and bulging duffel bags infringing on the only workout space she has.

She arrived at these Games hoping they’d be hers, eyeing an elusive gold medal, perhaps even two. Perhaps, she dreamed, a storybook ending to a shimmering career that would send her off into the sunset. Her husband and nearly 2-year-old son could come along for the ride.

Then she tested positive for COVID-19, and now she spends her days alone, shuffling up and down the pseudo-runway between bed and TV, simulating bobsled pushes by pumping her legs and driving her palms into a desk that’s up against a wall and won’t move.