Inside Lolo Jones' Road to the Winter Olympics in Sochi
Jones joins elite list of athletes who have appeared in Summer and Winter Games.
Jan. 20, 2014— -- intro: Two-time summer Olympian Lolo Jones joined an elite list of athletes who have appeared in both the Summer and Winter Games when she was named to the U.S. bobsled team on Sunday.
The track star never received medals for her appearances at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 Olympics in London, but that hasn't stopped her from becoming one of team USA's biggest stars.
Jones, who famously claimed before the 2012 games that she was a virgin, has a knack for attracting attention through her brutally honest -- and often hilarious -- social media posts.
Here's an inside look at Jones' (occasionally bumpy) ride to the 2014 Olympic team.
quicklist: 1title: Lolo Beefs Uptext: In 2013, Jones talked about the 9,000-calorie diet she used to go from a lean track star to a bulked-up bobsledder.
In an interview with USA Today Sports, she said her new diet included two 1,365-calorie protein shakes and late-night trips to McDonald's for bacon double cheeseburgers.
Jones, who said she weighed 133 pounds during the London Olympics, where she came in fourth in the 100-meter hurdles, said last year that at 157 pounds, she was her "heaviest ever."
"I'm pumped about this muscle weight," she said. "My abs are still there. I'm still cut, just super solid."
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quicklist: 2title: Paltry Paychecktext: Jones' hard work has ultimately paid off since she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, but it turns out that work didn't yield a very big paycheck.
Last summer, Jones posted a video on Vine, where she showed her paycheck of $741.84 from her season with the USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, dated June 10. She said, "Seven months with bobsled season, the whole season. That's it?"
In the video, she spoke, apparently in jest, into a phone saying, "I'm going to be a little late on my rent."
"The bottom line is that all Olympic athletes dedicate their lives to their sports and do not all receive lucrative paychecks like athletes in mainstream professional sports," Jones said in a statement after critics said she was receiving more money than other athletes. "So hopefully, this will make people appreciate just how hard Olympians work, often just for the love of the sport."
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quicklist: 3title: Commercial Startext: That bobsled paycheck may not have been so big, but Jones has other ways to pay her bills.
The athlete's boisterous personality and magazine-worthy good looks have secured her deals with some of the biggest brands.
Jones has worked with McDonald's, Degree and Asics, to name a few.
It should come as no surprise to her fans that Jones is a natural in front of the camera.
"In L.A. shooting a commercial. Rashida Jones was clearly not available, so once again, I reap the benefit #lookalike," she wrote on Facebook on March 29, 2013.
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quicklist: 4title: A Formidable Contendertext: In January, just weeks before she was named to the U.S. Olympic team, Jones and fellow athlete Elana Meyers took second place in the women's Bobsled World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany.
On Jan. 19, Jones and 14 other bobsledders were named to the official U.S. Olympic team.
Lauryn Williams, a three-time Olympic track star who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and a gold in the 2012 London Games, will also join Jones in Sochi.
Despite her Olympic success, Williams has maintained a relatively low profile compared to Jones, who has never "medaled."
But Lolo being Lolo, she isn't afraid to answer her critics.
She tweeted last year that "haters dissing me for no Oly medal," when they've never made a team, was like them "complaining about me driving a BMW" while they're "sitting at a bus stop."
She even tweeted one critic, "When I checked u couldn't even make an Olympic team at ALL."
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quicklist: 5title: Lolo Joins Elite Group of Crossover Olympianstext: Barring any injury or illness, Jones and Williams will become the ninth and 10th American athletes to compete in both the Summer and Winter Games.
Perhaps the most successful was Eddie Eagan, who won a gold medal in boxing at the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp, Belgium. At the Lake Placid, N.Y., Winter Games in 1932, Eagan took gold in bobsledding.
Only 128 athletes worldwide have ever competed in both the Winter and Summer Games, according to OlympStats.com. On that list only 23 were women, making Jones and Williams' feats especially rare.
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