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PARK CITY — Olympian Lolo Jones is in Park City training to make the transition from warm-weather track runner to cold-enduring bobsledder.
Jones took fourth place at the London Olympics as a 100-meter hurdler, but now she is changing up her game to win a medal at the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Her training includes putting on some extra pounds to get her up to the ideal weight for a bobsledder. She has been eating a diet of 9,000 calories a day to help her get up to 160 pounds and gain some extra strength to man her sled.
She said there are some major differences between the sports besides the weather, but other things remain the same.
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Team USA athletes are in Park City, meeting with local and national media prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics.“The fact is once you put that Team USA jersey on, it’s the same," Jones said. "I get the same adrenaline rush I feel for putting on a track uniform that I do for a bobsled uniform."
The transition hasn’t all been easy though — she described her first time down the bobsled track as “horrific.”
“It was completely different from what I thought because you think it’s going to be like a rocky rollercoaster and it is definitely not like that at all. It’s more like a car accident or you’re being put in a metal trashcan and thrown down Mt. Everest,” Jones said. “It’s definitely a very interesting trip.”
Jones said she thought bobsledding would be a great new challenge, which every Olympian likes. At first she wasn’t planning on trying to get into the Winter Olympics; she just wanted a break from track and field.
After placing fourth place in London, she said she didn’t know how to pick herself up from there. She had fought through surgery and back-to-back injuries to make the London team and even though she was pleased with fourth, she still wanted more because she had come so close to medaling.
It's more like a car accident or you're being put in a metal trashcan and thrown down Mt. Everest.
–Lolo Jones
As she tried to find a way to re-motivate herself, she said she decided hanging out with the bobsled team would be enough to keep her in shape while allowing her to refresh through discovering a new sport.
“It not only did that, but so much more,” Jones said. “It refreshed me for track and field, but also gave me a new challenge of trying to be a Winter Olympian.”
She said she wants to be able to tell children she has in the future, she found a goal and went after it.
“Who knows what road would have led me where, but I just know I am definitely here because I have had ups and downs and am just looking forward to persevering,” Jones said.
Training for the Winter Olympics has also given her the opportunity to interact with athletes from both seasons, and she said sometimes there are similarities.
“I think the crazy thing is, in my mind, I'll just keep matching them up,” Jones said.
She said gymnasts are like the figure skaters and the hockey team is like the basketball team.
