Lori "Lolo" Jones was born on 5th August 1982 in Des Moines, Iowa, and currently resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Jones is an American track and field and bobsled athlete. She is of Native American, African, French, and Norwegian descent. She is a devout Christian, and often prays before competitions, and talks about her faith on social media.
She attended eight schools in eight years while her single mother, Lori, often held down two jobs to support her family of six. Jones' father spent most of her childhood in the Air Force and later in state prison.
When her family was about to make another move to Forest City, Iowa, Lolo and her family parted ways, and her mentor, Coach Ferguson, arranged for her to live with four different families during her enrollment at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines.
One of those who took Jones in was Janis Caldwell, who had seen Jones compete at Roosevelt. Jones stayed with the Caldwells after her senior year at Roosevelt, while she attended college, trained and worked part-time at the Iowa Bakery Cafe, a local coffee shop.
At Roosevelt, she excelled in the classroom, keeping her grades up and playing the cello in the school orchestra. She was named Gatorade Midwest Athlete of the Year and set a record at the Iowa state track meet with a mark of 13.40 seconds for the 100-meter hurdles. She also played cello in the school's orchestra.
Jones originally intended to enroll at Iowa State University through its Upward Bound/Science Bound program. Instead, she followed the lead of elite hurdler Kim Carson, who was her role model and Caldwell's goddaughter. Carson was an All-American and national champion at Louisiana State University. Like Carson, Jones competed on LSU's track team.
A 2005 graduate of Louisiana State University, Lolo specializes in the 60 and 100 meter hurdles. She won three NCAA titles and garnered eleven All-American honors while at Louisiana State University.
She won indoor national titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the 60m hurdles, and won a gold medal at the World Indoor Championship in Valencia, Spain in 2008.
She was favourite to win the 100m hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but tripped on the penultimate hurdle (below) when leading the race, and finished in seventh place. She did however go on to win silver at the 2008 World Athletics Final in Stuttgart.
In 2010 Jones defended her 60m hurdles Indoor World Title in Doha, after finishing with a time of 7.72s a new American record.
Due to there being no major championships for Americans, Jones then traveled to Europe and competed in mainly IAAF Diamond League events. After wins in Doha, Oslo, New York, Gateshead, and Monaco, Jones ended the season in second place in the Diamond League overall standings.
Jones made her 2011 race debut at the Aviva International Match, Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Jones finished the race in fourth place after hitting the third hurdle. A close third-place finish followed in Stuggart but injury and illness forced Jones to miss the rest of the indoor season.
On 23rd June 2012, Jones placed third in the 100m hurdles at the U.S. Olympics trials, qualifying her for a spot on the 2012 Summer Olympics team.
At the London Olympics on 6th August, Jones won her heat in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 12.68s. On 7th August she placed third in the semi-finals of the 100 meter hurdles, gaining progression to the finals. In the finals later that day Jones finished fourth with a time of 12.58s.In May 2013, Jones earned her first win of the 2013 season at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo.
At the 2015 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Jones advanced to the finals. She qualified for the NACAC Championships in Costa Rica. and won the NACAC Championships Women 100 metre hurdles in 12.63, but due to a strong tail wind her time was not considered a world record.
Much of Jones' schedule between 2013 and 2015 was spent concentrating on her 'other' sport and battling injury.
She represented the U.S. at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, making her one of the few athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.
On 27th January 2013, Jones won gold in the team event with the U.S. at the FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz.
She was selected for the U.S. bobsled team competing at the 2014 Olympics held in Sochi, Russia, as the brakewoman for the USA Team-3 sled, with the team coming eleventh.
On 19th February, 2014, the team placed eleventh, 3.36 seconds behind the gold-medal-winning Canadian team.
Last season was an injury plagued one for Lolo.
Now less than six months since hip surgery and four months before the summer Olympics, she's working had to find her stride. She is currently training for the Rio Olympics, doing the Orange theory fitness workouts, for which she is also a spokesman.
If Jones makes the U.S. team in Rio, it would be her fourth Olympic appearance.
In October 2009, Jones posed semi-nude for The Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine. In 2012 she appeared on the cover of Outside magazine wearing a bathing suit made of strategically placed ribbon.On 4th August 2012, Jones was heavily criticized by Jeré Longman of The New York Times: "This [media attention paid to her] was based not on achievement but on her exotic beauty and on a sad and cynical marketing campaign."
Janice Forsyth, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, compared her to tennis' Anna Kournikova, who had never won a WTA Tour singles tournament but became well-known after appearing in numerous photo shoots and product advertisements. Jones rejected these criticisms, saying that her critics should be "supporting the U.S. Olympic athletes," whereas instead they just "ripped me to shreds."
Jones also stated that The New York Times did not do its research properly, since, unlike Kournikova, she had won several major races, including two world indoor titles and holding the indoor American record.
In a 2012 segment on HBO's Real Sports, Lolo Jones revealed that she is a virgin, dates online, and struggles to maintain her virginity. See that short interview here!
She said: "If there's virgins out there, I'm going to let them know, 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."
The selection of Jones to the U.S. 2014 Winter Olympics bobsled team was criticised by some American bobsledders as happening due to her fame.However the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation CEO Darrin Steele defended the selection: "I haven't heard anyone making the argument about Lolo not being a better athlete right now, a better brakeman for the team. I don't think I've come across that one time. I've heard a lot about history and all that's nice. But who's going to provide the best results for the U.S. team in Sochi? That's the bottom line. And I'll have that debate with anyone who wants to have it."
Lolo Jones net worth is thought to be in the region of $1.5 Million.
Lolo Jones is the most followed U.S. Track and Field athlete on Twitter (414,000 followers)
Lolo is sponsored by several well known products/brands including Asics, Red Bull and Orange Theory Fitness.
In 2012 The Lolo Jones Foundation was set up. Its mission is to empower and inspire individuals who face the most socio-economical hardships to realise their full potential through engaging community programs and initiatives.
At its core, the Lolo Jones Foundation seeks to help the following demographic(s):
# Single Mothers.
# Families of incarcerated loved ones.
# Poverty stricken communities and youth.
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