This Lolo Jones article is from Sports Bank contributor Helen Salinger. Despite winning 3 bronze medals in 4 World Cup bobsled events former Western Michigan University Bronco volleyball star Katie Eberling was left off the U.S. Women’s Bobsled team. Eberling is a World Championship Medalist and accomplished bobsledder. Lolo Jones, who will take her spot in Sochi, is “Coco Loco.”
This is simply about star power and television ratings. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s been a running joke for decades what a corrupt mess the International Olympic Committee is, so they’re not going to do anything about this travesty. The IOC makes the BCS look wholesome and just by comparison.
Lolo Jones, who is a little loco if you ask me, got into an “altercation” with the stepdaughter of a Hall of Fame bobsledder on July 13 at the Roomers bar in Lake Placid, N.Y. — probably a fine bastion of nightlife there in upstate New York.
The victim’s name hasn’t been released, but the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation is letting Loco Jones off the hook on this one. There is no report of charges filed against either woman and some reports say Lolo Jones knocked out the woman. For what? Who the hell knows.
I thought Lolo Jones was just a track athlete who had a lot of endorsement deals for doing nothing (like Danica Patrick) and blowing out in the Olympics last year. Oh, and for telling everyone and their mother that she’s a virgin. Um, excuse me, Ms. Jones. Telling everyone that you’re a virgin isn’t exactly something that you should be shooting off your mouth about.
So now Lolo Jones is involved in the bobsled, which she took up last winter after her meltdown in London during the 100-meter hurdles where she finished fourth. Lolo Jones had an earlier collapse at the 2008 Olympics when she hit the second to last hurdle and ended up seventh — and this came AFTER she was well on her way to winning a gold medal.
Lolo Jones is hoping that competing in the bobsled will bring her at least one Olympic medal and she’s now going to the winter games next year in Sochi, Russia. But it still doesn’t take away from the fact that Lolo Jones will still be loco and getting endorsement deals up the wazoo for not winning when it really matters. Let’s hope at least the bar fights stop.
I know Boss Man Banks won’t be happy when hears about Lolo Jones getting the nod over Katie Eberling. He’s an alum of A.A. Stagg High School in Palos Hills, IL just like Eberling.