Grit over glamour: Lolo Jones comes home
The Des Moines native and multi-time Olympian ran at the Drake Relays for the first time in 10 years, hoping — at age 41 — to inspire her fellow Iowans to dream big
DES MOINES — Lolo Jones and the term “long shot” rarely emerged in the same breath when the two-time Olympic hurdler competed in her prime.
But now the Des Moines native is 41-years-old — and she’s still chasing an Olympic dream.
You read that right. Jones, a two-time world champion in the hurdles, said several days ago at the Drake Relays that she plans to try to make the U.S. Olympic team in track for a fourth time.
Doubt her at your peril. No matter the razor-thin odds. No matter the obstacles strewn in her always-ambitious path.
“The odds are always bad,” said Jones, who clocked in at 13.10 seconds in the elite 100-meter hurdle event at the Relays — just .25 seconds off the ‘A’ standard for the U.S. Olympic Trials. “Even in my prime, the odds to be an Olympic athlete, even in your healthy peak, it’s one percent. If you don’t know how to overcome odds, you are not destined to be an Olympian.”
Jones grew up idolizing the greats that graced Drake’s world-famous blue oval every April. Then she became a star on it while developing into a world-class athlete. Her best chance of attaining an Olympic medal came in 2008 at Beijing. Jones was the odds-on favorite to win the 100 hurdles, but she clipped the next-to-last hurdle, dropping her to seventh. In 2012 at the London Olympic Games, she finished fourth, and in 2014, she competed in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but didn’t medal.
None of that bad luck deterred her, then or now.
“I think I’ve always been driven when more odds are stacked against me and more people tell me I can’t do it,” Jones said. “Just don’t do it, because then it’s like, ‘Oh, really?’ I love it. I’m a hurdler. I like getting over things that are trying to block my path. That’s my job, so I’m gonna go out there and hopefully impress a lot of people.”
And herself. In some ways, she’s still the young girl who gazed at Drake Stadium’s storied track and went into what-if mode. What if she worked hard and could win a race there? What if she then worked harder and smarter to become an elite hurdler? What if that ultimate and endless effort made her a star both on and off the track?
“The Olympic medal was always so close, yet so far away, but here’s the thing: I never stopped,” Jones said. “And I hope that I can show Iowans that they can be very proud of the person they created because my heart was formed on this track. I was inspired watching my first-ever track meet even before I legit had a chance to be an Olympian. This is the track meet that gave me my passion for that.”
Now Jones’ passion drives her on her unlikely quest to become an Olympian yet again, even though few give her a chance to accomplish the feat.
“It’s not over yet,” she said. “It’s definitely looking bad. I’m not gonna lie to you guys, it’s looking bad, but we will fight until the end because that’s what I’ve done my whole career.”
I’m honored to be among the many talented writers and artists on this list (below).
Please subscribe to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Weekly Round Up column: