Lolo Jones Says She'd Like to Try Skeleton Someday

The hurdler-slash-bobsledder said she might try the sport if she doesn't win an Olympic medal in bobsled in 2014

If Lolo Jones doesn't win an Olympic medal in bobsled in 2014, there's always another chance on the track in 2016. And if she doesn't win there, who knows, there could be a chance in skeleton in 2018.

The hurdler-slash-bobsledder said that shortly after she decided to try to make it to the Sochi Olympics a U.S. skeleton coach came up to her and said she might have been better off trying bobsled's faster cousin.

"He said, 'You wouldn't have had to gain the weight, go back and forth,'" Jones said Monday at the U.S. Olympic media summit.

Which got her to thinking.

"I hate to say this, but after the Winter Olympics, I'd like to try skeleton," Jones said. "Not anything serious. Just want to go down and see."

Jones has suffered a pair of Olympic heartbreaks in her summer sport, the 100-meter hurdles. In 2008, she was winning the final when she clipped the second-to-last hurdle and ended up finishing seventh. In 2012, Jones overcame spinal cord surgery to make the Olympic team. She finished fourth in London.

In an attempt to overcome that disappointment, Jones started considering bobsled, where she has proven a good fit. Earlier this year, she won gold in the team event at the world championships.

The biggest hurdle for her in the new sport was gaining weight. Eating around 9,000 calories a day (One tip from Jones: Mix your protein shake with whipping cream), Jones went from 133 to 158 pounds, as she traded track work for more weights and fruits and veggies for bacon double cheeseburgers — one every other day.

After Sochi, Jones will have to take off the weight so she can get in hurdling shape again.

"There's a process where I'll definitely be crazy on wheels," she said, not long after handing an empty candy bar wrapper to a friend. "It'll be a change because I can't eat candy anymore."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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