Lolo Jones will do anything she can to get that coveted gold medal. Even if it means shooting down a tunnel of ice at super-human speeds.
The Olympic hurdler has been working with the U.S. Olympic bobsled team in Lake Placid, N.Y., and was invited along with some other track athletes to the team's push championships by coach Todd Hays. On Saturday Jones worked with pilot Jazmine Fenlator as she attempts to get a push-athlete spot on the team.
"I'm just trying to take it all in," Jones said to the Associated Press. "It's a new sport for me and there's a ton of room for improvement. ... I'm coming in here trying to learn everything quickly. I'm looking forward to fixing some things and hammering it out."
The two came in second place in the first group of races, finishing behind Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans (1:56.96) by just 0.05 seconds. The combined two-run time of 1 minute, 57.01 was Jones' debut as a bobsledder.
According to the Associated Press: "Greubel and Evans set a track push record of 5.43 seconds. Evans won the national push championships earlier this season."
Track stars can move easily towards the sport due to their special skills and leg strength, which can help with push starts for bobsled races. Hays originally invited the track starts to the competition to "share their Olympics experiences with our athletes and to help boost team morale."
Following the first run of the event, Jones and her partner were in first place and could be in line for a spot on the World Cup team.
Jones is a well-known hurdler for the U.S. Olympic team, but has still yet to achieve success on the grand stage. She finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles at the London Olympics and finished 7th in Beijing after clipping a hurdle in her race.
She has also gained attention on Twitter multiple times for controversial things she has written.
Jones has been criticized for getting massive media attention but not performing at the highest level. She has brought a lot of it on herself, proclaiming to the world that she is a virgin and also bringing attention by crying on the Today show after the Olympics.
She previously said about being a virgin: "(it's) the hardest thing I've ever done in my life-harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage."
Jones sent a harsh message to paralyzed former Rutgers player Eric LeGrand that caused a stir on Twitter earlier this month after he made a joke challenging her to a race.
After everything died down, Jones released a statement to Yahoo Sports stating: "I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone by my tweet. When Eric challenged me to a race earlier all I knew was that he was a football player, but certainly had no idea he had become paralyzed from a football injury. I thought I was tweeting in good fun like I always do with the many athletes who challenge me to races."
Earlier this year during the Olympics she sent out a tweet saying "when's da gun shooting competition," referencing America's love of guns just eight days after the deadly Aurora, Colorado shooting.
Aside from the controversy, it would be an amazing accomplishment to be part of two sports in the Olympics that are drastically different from each other.
Clearly Jones is a world-class athlete and the attention she brings to the bobsled competition can only be a positive for the sport and the winter Olympics.
