If you spent any time at all online before and during the 2012 Summer Olympics, it's hard not to remember Lolo Jones. The American hurdler became the London Games' first media darling. Jones' athleticism, the media's obsession with her looks, and her entertaining Twitter posts -- often hilarious, self-deprecating or sarcastic -- gained her fans and followers by the thousands. The fact that she claimed, at age 29, to be a virgin didn't exactly deflect attention either.
Then Jones failed to medal in London, and perception began to turn. She received far more publicity than she deserved, critics said, taking away glory from more deserving female athletes who didn't discuss their sex lives with reporters. She was portrayed as a marketing-obsessed bit of fluffy hype. "For Lolo Jones, Everything Is Image," blared the New York Times headline that August.
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Now, improbably, Jones is back chasing that elusive Olympic medal (she was a hurdling favorite in 2008, but tripped on the second-to-last jump and finished seventh). Only this time, she's not running under the hot sun. No, Jones' comeback hinges on the most different sport imaginable: bobsled.
Jones has been training and competing at international events with the U.S bobsled team for several months. If she makes the squad that will travel to Sochi when it's announced on Sunday, her Winter Olympics debut will be just the latest chapter in a compelling story of fame, success, failure and -- possibly -- redemption.
But she says this career makeover is about competition, not more attention.
"I'm so tired of hearing people say this is about the limelight," Jones told the Associated Press in January. ''So you're tired of hearing somebody who is literally pursuing their dream and they've had knocks, they've been knocked down, they've been publicly humiliated and yet they still are fighting so hard for this silly medal. You're knocking that? You're knocking somebody that will not give up? That, in my eyes, is what I don't understand."
While plenty of Jones' critics still express their opinions online, Jones herself maintains the same playful Twitter persona that helped make her a sensation before the 2012 Games.
Announcing the first person to make The Olympic Bobsled Team. Don't melt under pressure https://t.co/U5C6SuUaEE— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) January 7, 2014
I got u Christmas gift and sent it but mail didn't deliver it in time... Truth: it's still at mall,once I get it on sale tomm. I'll send it— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) December 26, 2013
They'll get all the ladies walking around Oly village in thoseRT @NBCOlympics: Oh, the pants. Norwegian #curling team pic.twitter.com/5YzIwmML9t— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) December 3, 2013
Next month in Sochi, Jones may finally get an Olympic achievement to match her off-the-track fame.