While Lolo Jones is appearing on our screens every week on The Challenge: Double Agents, the Olympian has been making waves off the screen and just won a historic bobsled world championship, her first in the two-woman Olympic event. The bobsled world championship was Jones’ first and her bobsled partner Kaillie Humphries’ fourth, making her the first woman to win four world titles in the event.
The pair is expected to be contenders for the gold medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, Sports Illustrated reported. After her win, Jones hit back at her haters in an Instagram post and quoted criticism she’d received: “‘Old.’ ‘Washed up.’ ‘You should retire.’ ‘Can’t medal.'” She continued, “11 years since my last World champs medal. 11 years of hate. Ignore them all. Keep grinding.”
Her Challenge costars were among Jones’ supporters commenting their congratulations in response to her post. Fessy Shafaat wrote, “LET THEM KNOW LOLO.” Kaycee Clark wrote, “Sooo damn proud.” Natalie Anderson commented, “So f****** amazing. Letttsss f****** gooo!”
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Jones & Humphries Won the World Championship in Germany by .35 of a Second, Giving Jones Her 1st Win & Humphries Her 4th
To be honest Kaillie could’ve won with any of our teammates. She’s that good. 90 percent of the win goes to her just credit me for 10 percent.
— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) February 6, 2021
Jones and Humphries won the world championship by .35 seconds over second place thanks to their combined times of four runs in Germany. Humphries made history by becoming the first woman to win four bobsled titles while Jones, 38, won her first title, Team USA wrote. After her win, Jones said, “I didn’t think I would be emotional. I don’t know if the snow was hitting me at the braking stretch or if I was crying, but I think I was crying.”
Jones is one of only 10 athletes in the U.S. who has competed at both Summer and Winter Olympics, in hurdles and bobsled. She’s previously won the world indoor hurdles title in 2008 and 2010 but has yet to win an Olympic medal. She’ll be aiming for the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2022, which is where she failed to win at the 2008 Summer Olympics, leading the final for first place until she tripped on the penultimate hurdle and finished seventh, NBC Sports wrote.
Jones said, “Nothing would mean more to me than to face my fears of 12 years of being ridiculed for not getting an Olympic medal, to going back to the same place where everybody said I blew it, everybody called me a failure all these years, and being successful.” She added, “I just want to celebrate today, celebrate this win, because it’s been 11 years since I’ve been on the top of a podium.”
What is not seen in this photo is the many coaches that helped us navigate a tough season
the athletic trainers that worked long hours on our beat up bodies
Or
the alternates that did not race but selflessly prepared our bobsled to keep us rested.
We are Team USA. pic.twitter.com/2EuDoRLxjk
— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) February 6, 2021
Jones Previously Opened Up About Training for Bobsled Right After the Double Agents Season Filmed & She Wasn’t Sure She’d Qualify
On November 22, Jones announced that she’d qualified for the USA National bobsled team and said her training journey in 2020 was all over the map. She said she started the year by training for track and field for the Summer Olympics which were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She explained:
After months of sitting in my house with all my races cancelled I was beyond frustrated. I just wanted to compete in something. I didn’t care what. So I decided to go on the reality show @challengemtv.
She said after filming ended, she went straight to the Olympic Training Center in New York to get ready for qualifiers, a process that she did in three weeks instead of six months. On February 4, Jones announced she’d made the world championship team and said, “I still can not believe the turn around my season has had. From barely making The USA Team because I was coming in from a reality tv show. From being an alternate for races to now being one of the final two that will rep USA at Worlds.”
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