Lolo Jones Lands Spot In Both the Summer AND Winter Olympics

So it looks like Lolo Jones has become a part of that rare breed of both Summer AND Winter Olympians. Pretty impressive. How do you take a track and field hurdler and turn her into a tiny muscled-up bobsledder? That’s a good question. Guess you’ll have to ask Lolo since only a handful of athletes have ever accomplished this feat.

Some say she’s only doing it for the sponsorships, but personally I could care less. In fact, if that’s true then I consider it a testament to her business acumen and hard work to find a way to combine her athletic gifts with her personal branding marketability. Trust me when I say there are easier ways to market yourself than re-training your physical aptitude to compete in another sport. Honestly, have you seen what happens to champion Olympic figure skaters just a couple years after winning Olympic gold? Can you say Ice Capades? Seriously, it’s sad. Check the record. It happens like clockwork.

Here’s a minor little footnote into my personal history. I went to high school with a girl who won the Olympic gold medal for swimming. She was built like an ox, although petite and pretty, and she could bench press more than I could. Her life was miserable though. All throughout high school she was constantly “in training.” She also consistently walked around half asleep throughout the entire school day, each and every day. Plus, she had absolutely no social life whatsoever. Then one day all her hard work paid off and she won the gold in the 400 meter freestyle. What a triumph right? Nope. Want to know what happened to her? She joined the circus. NO KIDDING. She went to Stanford on a full athletic scholarship after winning the gold medal for America and she ended up joining the FREAKING circus because she couldn’t do anything else to earn a living. That’s a bitter end to a lot of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears.

scoop.

ANYWAY, back to Lolo.

Lolo Jones, Lauryn Williams

chosen for U.S. bobsled team – ESPN.

Lolo Jones talked Lauryn Williams into trying bobsledding, dangling the potential of another Olympic trip as her bait.

Little did they know they were talking about history.

Jones and Williams — both Summer Olympic veterans — were among the selections Sunday night for the U.S. Olympic bobsled team, putting them in position to join a very exclusive club. Barring something unforeseen, they will become the ninth and 10th Americans to compete in both the summer and winter versions of the Games when they compete at the Sochi Olympics next month.

Jones, Williams and Aja Evans were the three women chosen out of a six-woman pool for the push athlete spots, that word coming at a team meeting where half the candidates saw their Olympic dreams realized and the other half saw them come to a quiet end.

“I was definitely very nervous entering the room,” Jones said. “I’m usually used to looking up at a screen after I cross the finish line to see the results. You’re just like anxious, armpits are sweating, don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Here’s the ref. if you want to READ: http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/bobsled/story/_/id/10319460/lolo-jones-lauryn-williams-chosen-us-bobsled-team

HOWEVER, if you want to SEE more, then here’s my little Lolo appreciation gallery. Congrats Lolo! We’re all looking forward to seeing your transition. Push hard, or whatever it is that bobsledders are supposed to do. Enjoy! 🙂