Elana Meyers Taylor, who made headlines competing in her fourth Olympics in Beijing, recently opened up about parenting her young son, who was born with special needs.

The five-time Olympic medalist gave birth to her son Nico at the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. After receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome, her and her husband began prepping for the various therapies Nico would need once he left the hospital NICU, which included physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and even music therapy. He was eventually diagnosed with profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears, for which he received cochlear implants shortly before the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

She spoke about the procedure with Olympics.com, saying, “When Nico received his cochlear implants, the major surgery exhausted us all but none more than Nico. It was quite a process for the surgery and recovery- but Nico handled it like a champ! Definitely had to miss a few training sessions for that, but I wouldn’t take back his ability to hear through cochlear implants for anything.”

Nico has made significant progress since his activation, with his mother noting “What’s really amazing is seeing how his language has blossomed, especially as he interacts with the US Bobsled team. He waves and laughs and smiles at our teammates, and he’s getting closer to speaking (outside of mama and dada which he already says) every day and I can’t help but be extremely thankful for the US team’s role in this.”

Read the entire article here: https://olympics.com/en/news/elana-meyers-taylor-blog