A few of my journalist friends said in private that American track star Lolo Jones needed some penis in order to win an Olympic medal, but that’s not really the case.
I think that argument is stupid, silly and was seeded in the brain of an imbecile, through some form of Inception that would make Leonardo DiCaprio cringe.
Whether or not sex could have put a little pep in 30-year-old virgin Lolo’s step is not what the discussion should be about. When I saw Lolo break down into tears over the harsh criticism from the media after coming in fourth in the 100m Hurdles Final last night, I was torn. There was an idiotic New York Times article that claims that while Lolo proclaims to be a virgin, she’s willing to whore herself out to be famous.
Jere Longman writes:
“Jones has decided she will be whatever anyone wants her to be — vixen, virgin, victim — to draw attention to herself and the many products she endorses.”
Lolo figured that two days before the biggest race of her life, the media would embrace her and support her heroic comeback. “Instead they just ripped me to shreds.”
“And I just thought that was crazy because I work six days a week every day for four years for a 12-second race,” she said.
Lolo is accomplished, but she’s being picked apart for not bragging about her accomplishments, and failing to achieve her ultimate goal.
“I have the American record. I am the American record holder indoors, I have two world indoor titles,” Jones said. “Just because I don’t boast about these things, I don’t think I should be ripped apart by media. I laid it out there.”
In the NYT article, the writer points out that she posed nude for ESPN the magazine, but that’s what many popular athletes, and many of her fellow Olympians, have done as well. Did Longman come at Dwight Howard or Tyson Chandler for not winning the NBA title because they stripped down to their balls? No!
Lolo Jones is beautiful, talented, dedicated and shouldn’t be a casualty of her own cuteness! It’s not her fault she’s open to answering questions and not afraid to be real about who she is. It’s not her fault that talking about her troubled past is a topic of discussion. It’s not her fault that people care more about her story, than other people’s stories.
The attention that Lolo received hurt the feelings of her fellow teammates, who seemed to take delight while they bashed her during a post-race interview.
Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells made it no secret that they didn’t give a damn about Lolo’s feelings.
“I just felt as if I worked really hard to represent my country [in 2008] in the best way possible,” Harper said, “And to come away with the gold medal, and to honestly seem as if, because [the media’s] favorite didn’t win all of sudden it’s just like, ‘Were going to push your story aside, and still gonna push this one.’ That hurt. It did. It hurt my feelings.”
The whole world is coming down on Lolo Jones, so I say she’s allowed to cry. This woman trained her entire life, and came up short from Olympic greatness. But sometimes, not achieving your goal makes for a better story than winning it all.
So let’s cut Lolo some slack and get ready for the movie.
“Yeah, I could do a Lifetime movie, Rashida Jones would play me as current Lolo, Vanessa Williams would play me when I get older, and Halle Berry’s kid would play me when I was younger—obviously.”
Lolo is so freaking cool – even when she loses.
Photo via Outside Magazine via Robert Maxwell // Quotes via CBS, NBC, NYT & Outside Magazine
