A Virgin for All Seasons: Lolo Jones Could Soon Compete in Both Winter and Summer Olympics
Track star Immaculata Lolo Jones sure does have a lot of pent up energy and time on her hands; the U.S. bobsled team announced Thursday that Jones was one of 24 athletes who had secured a position on this season's bobsled team.
Jones joins the team as a "push athlete" — one of the ones who helps push the bobsled down the shoot, hops in the back to ride it to the finish, and has never known the touch of a man.
This opens up the possibility that she could represent the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi a mere two years after disappointing us all in London.
If it ends up that Jones does qualify for the 2014 Olympics (her first major hurdle comes this winter at the bobsledding World Cup — hopefully she won't smack into it), she won't be the first athlete to compete in both the winter and summer games; over a dozen athletes already hold that distinction. A lot of them have even competed in bobsled as their winter event; fellow London 2012 alum Tianna Madison (a gold medal sprinter) was added to the team today along with Jones.
Still, it's a lot more impressive than most people's summer-winter crossover activities, which consist of "enjoying donuts sprinkled with seasonal confetti," "watching NBC," and "competing in no olympics."
