{"id":24949,"date":"2014-09-06T07:10:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T23:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=24949"},"modified":"2014-09-05T22:57:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T14:57:01","slug":"from-track-to-tango-lolo-jones-puts-brakes-on-bobsled-hurdles-for-dancing-with-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/06\/from-track-to-tango-lolo-jones-puts-brakes-on-bobsled-hurdles-for-dancing-with-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"From track to tango: Lolo Jones puts brakes on bobsled, hurdles for \u2018Dancing With the Stars\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lolo<\/a>
Lolo Jones. Photo by Grzegorz Jereczek <\/a>\/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lolo Jones wrapped up her track season a little early so she could tango and two-step. She\u2019s also putting her bobsled career on hold for a winter in order to jitterbug and jive.<\/p>\n

The Olympian is simply hearing the call of the music, even if she readily admits she has two left feet on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

Jones will join NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip, UFC legend Randy Couture and other famous personalities on the new season of \u201cDancing With the Stars.\u201d The 19th season of the show premieres Sept. 15 on ABC.<\/p>\n

The nerves are already building for Jones, who\u2019s quite rhythmic leaping over hurdles, just not so much on a dance floor.<\/p>\n

She said her prom date in high school even left her early because of her dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been traumatized ever since,\u201d Jones said with a laugh in a phone interview with The Associated Press. \u201cThis will be my chance to make up for that\u2014in front of a whole bunch of people, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones hasn\u2019t had a moment to slow down since placing 11th as a brakeman for a U.S. sled at the Sochi Olympics.<\/p>\n

She then quickly switched over to the hurdles, her summer occupation. Jones finished third in the event at the USA Championships in Sacramento, California, in June and ran a few other meets before shutting things down to give herself a rest.<\/p>\n

Now, she\u2019s clearing her calendar to cha-cha and foxtrot.<\/p>\n

Jones put the brakes on her bobsled ambitions\u2014just for a winter, though. Nothing long-term.<\/p>\n

Only because there\u2019s no telling how far she may advance in the dance competition and it may be well into November until she\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (bobsledding) are the ones that encouraged me to take the year off,\u201d said the 32-year-old Jones, who\u2019s from Des Moines, Iowa. \u201cThey knew about this opportunity, said it would be good for me to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

No pressure, but quite a few athletes have won the competition: Emmitt Smith, Apolo Anton Ohno, Helio Castroneves, Kristi Yamaguchi, Shawn Johnson, Hines Ward, Donald Driver and Meryl Davis.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she\u2019s been taking some instructions. She\u2019s also a little intimidated by some of the backgrounds of her fellow competitors. Actress Lea Thompson once trained in ballet and some of the others were tap dancers.<\/p>\n

But Jones does have this working in her favour\u2014her footwork from years of track. She was recently on a plane with actor and fellow competitor Alfonso Ribeiro, who was rubbing his ankles and saying how bad they hurt after a dance session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him that when I come off a hurdle I jam my ankles pretty good. So this isn\u2019t too bad,\u201d Jones recalled. \u201cHe looked at me like I was crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once her stint on the show ends, Jones will return to track. She\u2019s anxious to see how good she can be just focusing on the hurdles again, especially with the 2016 Rio Games on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Jones has had some heartbreaking encounters at the Olympics. She finished fourth at the 2012 London Games, 0.10 seconds behind bronze medallist Kellie Wells.<\/p>\n

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jones came in as the favourite and was leading the final when she hit the ninth of 10 hurdles and wound up seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell people all the time: Even if I would\u2019ve won a gold medal at the last two Olympics, I still would go for Rio,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI think it\u2019s amazing they\u2019re having an Olympics there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her Olympic future in bobsledding, well, that remains undecided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to put my focus on Rio first. I don\u2019t make any guarantees for South Korea,\u201d Jones said about the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang. \u201cIt just depends on if I\u2019m still in shape and if they want me. There are so many factors that go into play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lolo Jones wrapped up her track season a little early so she could tango and two-step. She\u2019s also putting her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-pat-graham","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}