Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Overcoming Failure And Defeat With Olympic "Gold Medal Loser" Lolo Jones

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

Lolo Jones (@lolojones) is a 3-time, 2 sport Olympian and World Champion, social media influencer and reality show star. She joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about her podcast called "Gold Metal Loser", her career as a hurdler in the Summer Olympic Games and as a bobsledder in the Winter Olympic Games, the lessons she has learned from defeat, what a typical day of training looks like, why she wrote her book called Over It: How to Face Life's Hurdles with Grit, Hustle, and Grace and much more! For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris VanV. Thank you so much for being with us on this one. And I just got to put this out there. Gold Metal Loser isn't just some clever title that I came up with for this episode.

It's actually the name of Lolo Jones podcast, which is also on the Blue Wire Podcast Network. Yeah, gold medal. loser. And look, we've all dealt with failure or defeat in our lives. But for Lolo Jones, this was on a whole different level. You probably remember this. The Summer Olympics, 2008, Beijing, Lolo was a favorite to win on the 100-meter hurdles. And during the race, she's absolutely crushing the competition. She's like one second away from winning. And then she trips on the second to last hurdle. ends up in seventh place. I can't even imagine how devastating.

That must have been. But we talk about how she overcame that, how she went from being a summer Olympian to a winter Olympian as well. Yeah, two-sport Olympian. And I just really enjoyed this conversation. I hope you do as well. And if you do enjoy it, please share it with somebody.

Take a screenshot, tag us on social media. Lolo is at Lolo Jones. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. and if it's your first time here, it'd be so appreciated if you can subscribe to the show wherever you're listening. Also, subscribe to gold medal loser as well. Our fan of the week is George. He says, Love it. This has quickly soared to become one of my favorite podcasts. Keep Up the Great Work, Chris. Thank you so much for that, George. I read one review from Apple Podcasts on every episode. So if you're listening on your iPhone, if you could leave a few words on there, I'll shout you out on the show for free.

It's my way to say thank you. Thank you for being on this journey with me. Also, if you enjoy the show, please consider leaving a rating on Spotify. Whatever you think might be nice, you know, whatever you think is a good rating. Although we have, I think it's 570, five-star ratings on Spotify right now.

So it would be incredible if you could leave a rating on there. All right, let's dive into this. Please welcome. Lolo Jones. Lolo, thank you so much for making the time to do this. Oh, no worries. I'm here. What color would we call your hair right now? This hair color, I'm sorry for, actually, this is the one time it's actually better to listen to a podcast and actually watch a podcast because this hair right now is all over the place.

It's like, everybody's like, I love your red hair. I love your purple hair. I love your pink hair. That's how confusing this hair color is. It's, I don't know. It's washing out by the minute. Every time I wash my hair, it's a new color. I think you could really call this, you could call this color whatever you want, I feel like. It's coming out tomorrow. I'm so excited. I'm going back to my normal color, my natural color. So yeah, but it was fun having a midlife crisis for a little bit. No, no. You're not even at your midlife. Come on. Am I? Not. Okay. You must have not Googled my age. But no, I'm up there in age. We are about the same age, actually.

Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. Well, I loved you. We're not going to tell if you were. We're not going to tell viewers what my age are, but I'm still in my 30s by holding on by dear life. They can do the math, three-time Olympian. They're like, oh, my gosh. Wow, okay. Yeah.

I loved your post yesterday, though, when you were like, Tom Brady's unretired. Like, you're basically saying, like, yeah, like, I feel good about this. Yeah, you always feel good until you go out into the track or, you know, Tom Brady feels great right now. But wait to the moment he gets on that field and, like, people are starting to hit him again. and the warm-ups and, you know, the commitment it takes. Trust me. I mean, I love what Tom Brady's going through because he gives me a perfect explanation of what I'm going through right now

because people are like, oh, are you retired? Are you? And I'm like, look, I'm on the Tom Brady retirement plan. And once I say that, people back the F off. Like, they gave me my space and like let me live. So it's like, I could be retired tomorrow. I don't know. Or I could make another push, you know, who knows?

But I like that Tom Brady, is the goat and he's, you know, taking one for all the older athletes out there. But I also feel like you're still training your ass off. I am, but I'm not posting as much like my training stuff because I'm so tired of the hate. I'm so tired of being forced into retirement. And so I'm kind of just doing my own thing and seeing what my body will allow me to do. I'm not making any commitments for another Olympic push, even though next Olympics is like two years away because of COVID.

It's like, it's so weird, right? And then I'm just, I'm not, I'm just like, I just want to see if I can get back to hurtling, pain free, injury free, and I love doing it, you know, because it's a grind. It's a hustle, you know? It's like every night I come home, I'm like, man, if I was retired, I could have like a whole cake right now. But I can't because I'm still doing this track thing. So I have to, you know, be very still diligent in my actions. Yeah, you've been like training as an athlete, eating like an athlete, living like an athlete for like pretty much your whole life. Yeah, Bobz's was good though. Bopslet gave me a break because I actually had to gain weight for bobsled. So I was able to live a little bit more. I was able to eat, you know, cheeseburgers when I wanted to and pizza, not feel guilty

about it, but you still had to work your butt off on the workout. You know, like essentially I went from when I was. competing in track and field, a wide receiver, very fast, agile light to bobsled. It was more like a linebacker. I needed the muscle mass. I needed the weight on me. So yeah, it was just different mentality. Like walk us through, for us normal people, walk us through what a day of Olympic training would look like. It's funny because most people assume Olympic athletes wake up at the crack it on like 6 a.m. Rocky style, you know, running stairs. But we actually, I have training at 11. So today I was, I woke up around like 9.45. I was pushing it, you know? So, and then once I go

to training, it's two to three hours of running slash weights and then take a break, lunch, and then I'll do some either yoga, Pilates later or like another type of easy workout. So it's really just one hard workout a day and then maybe some like stuff easier stuff later. I don't know. What you just listed there is like an entire week's worth of working out for like even most fit people. Yeah. I mean, I think my longest workout was like eight hours, you know, but it was that was from bobsled and you're actually working on a bobsled. So I count it. But my longest track workout is four hours, five hours maybe. So what's recovery look like after that? I sleep a lot. So I'm like a big cat. I just literally, I'm just, I couldn't believe this whole weekend. I just slept, I just slept through the whole weekend. I didn't go out. I didn't party. I mean, everybody's like spring breaking hardcore right now. And I'm just, I watched TV and I slept. And it was amazing. It was glorious. So I honestly don't know like how, how do normal people not take naps? I just, I need naps. Like I'm a napper. So.

Well, normal people aren't training the way that you're training. So maybe they don't require the same amount of. Yeah. I hope, I really hope. that's the case. I mean, I really hope that my energy levels rebound when I'm done because right now I have, I just have none. Like, I will sometimes be so tired. I can't even do the dishes. Like, little things like, everybody probably struggles with house chores, but like, I can't even, I'll be like, oh, sometimes I don't have enough energy to go shopping, grocery shopping. So physically I'm drained, but like mentally I'm there. And so it's, it's funny when I talk to my friends who have normal jobs, like desk jobs. And, they get off of work and their body's ready to go.

They're like, oh, I can't wait to go do a workout or this and that. But like, if you ask them a question, their mind is just fried. They're like, I can't think. And I'm the opposite. Like, I'm laying in my bed and like my body can't move after a workout. But like my mind is like, I wish we could like go do something. Like, you know, it's like it has all these high goals and then I just have no energy to execute them. So what gets you up like on competition day?

Like what gets you up and ready to go? Well, competition day is different because. you, sometimes you, you know, you taper before a competition so you're a little bit more rested. And also you get paid for a competition. So money, hello, he's not inspired with that. And then also obviously, you know, how you started the whole dream is to just be the best in the world. So having all the hard work, all those hours that you put in, the competitions are like the test. So the practices are like the homework. Okay. I'm doing my homework every day. I'm putting in the work, you know. And then when you go to a competition, it's like, okay.

am I about to just ace this exam? So it kind of makes all the hard work worth it when you do go to a competition and win, but when you don't, then it's like devastating. But I imagine, though, that like the dream didn't begin is I'm going to be the best in the world when you're a young girl. So like when...

Really? Of course it did. No, I mean, it was, I didn't like losing for sure as a kid, you know. So it wasn't like I was going to be the best in the world. I mean, I didn't even think I could be an Olympic athlete. I just knew that I wanted to beat the other girls my age and I was fierce about that. And so I took even at the young age,

the competition's very serious. And so, yeah, I don't know. I never envisioned I'd be a summer and winter Olympia. I never even thought I'd make one Olympic team. So I'm sitting in three Olympics like that's crazy to me. But I think in the back of your mind, if you have a dream for something, you always, you kind of know. Like there's a seed.

There's something, there's something to. right? There's like, whatever dream it is, you might not think you'll be, you know, the Bill Gates, but there's something to your dream, you know? Well, and I think it's like step by step, right? It's once I accomplish this, you start to dream a little bit bigger and then a little bit bigger. So for you- Hurtle by hurdle since I'm a hurdler. Oh, there it is. Okay. I like it. So at what point did you come to the realization of, oh my God, like maybe I have the talent combined with this crazy work ethic. Maybe I could actually be the best in the world.

You actually never get that point. I mean, I never, even I've had, I've broken the American record, which means I'm the fastest hurdler in the history of the hurdles for Team USA. I've broken the world championship record. I've been one of the few athletes to make a summer and winter Olympic team. And I still have doubts and fears like, ooh, am I good enough? Can I do this? Can I do that?

You know? So you're always combating those doubts and fears. And so when anybody's trying to start a dream, you know, one of the biggest things that hinders people is, oh, I don't think I can do it. I don't think I have what it takes. And I'm telling you from me, someone who has tasted every kind of elite experience, you're always going to have those. So never let a doubt or a fear stop you because they're always going to be there. You know, anytime I step on the line for hurdles, it's like, ooh, like, you know, this looks tough. So it's just overcoming that on a regular basis. because I think the moment you think you have it, you're like, oh, I've been there before. I can do this. I think that's the moment. It's like you take it for granted. And then you really don't have that edge, that crisp, sharpness that you need.

So I don't know. Maybe other athletes are super confident. But I've always been one that's had to fight for everything, never been the most talented. And I've literally made teams because of my mentality and just my grit and not getting up. So that's just the state I always carry with me. Like, you know, you might not be good enough, but I'm for sure not going to give up. And I'm going to just put all my effort into this. Is this the old adage of like first to arrive and then last to leave for practice?

Absolutely. That's so dumb. I like the adage. Work smarter, not harder. That's definitely it. Yeah. But no, I mean, there's certain days where I was the first person in the gym and the last person to leave for sure. but if your body needs rest,

then I also would be the one that would listen to my body. You know, I would say more so I was, whatever the coach gave me, I wouldn't skip corners, you know, and I'd see a lot of other athletes, they'd be lazy on their warmups or their cool downs,

or they'd have cheat meals all the time, they'd go out and party, so they weren't resting. So I was just, if the coach told me to do something, if it was on the workout, I would do it. And then I would also research other things on how I could always continue to improve.

So, but yeah, I definitely was, though I was the last one to lead practice today, but that's just because I was exhausted. And so I was just laying on the track and all the younger athletes were like, see, okay, see you tomorrow, see you tomorrow. And I'm just like, oh, I'm just going to be here another 10 minutes while I'm out of breath. Have you taken the same mentality? Like, do you take that with you to everything else in your life? I think so, but I haven't had many, obviously, work-life experience outside of being an athlete TV personality.

But I have been told quite often I'm very intense, which is a good thing. Yeah, and you're like, thank you. And they're like, we didn't mean that as a compliment. It's not going to be good, though, if I actually have a desk job ever. I'm nervous. I think I'd be more nervous to do a desk job than anything else because I'm so used to moving. and, you know, if I have any type of aggression or frustration, stress, I can just run it out. I wouldn't even know how to deal like people who have passive aggressive work environments. I don't know. I don't know how to help you. Like, I don't know.

You're sitting there. Now you desk typing all aggressively because you hate your coworker. I don't know how to do with that. Well, you'll never have to deal with that. I might. Who knows? I can't run forever. Yeah, but then you can teach people to run better.

Oh, I always hope. people. If I'm going to be a coach, it's because I've run out of money. It would be a great coach, but it's a hard lifestyle being a coach because you're back in the grind, you're traveling all the time. And now your job depends on, I mean, let's say I'm coaching in college, like essentially 19, teens. So, I mean, my mortgage depends on teens. I don't know. It's a tough lifestyle. Well, you're a podcaster now. Like, yeah. I am. So congrats by the way on that. Thank you. Instead of running my legs and running my mouth. That's it.

Yeah. How did you come up with the title for this? Because I think that it's seemingly something that maybe you'd want to put behind you. I know. It's a cringe every time I say my podcast title. My podcast title is gold medal loser. And for people who don't really know me, I mean, I was one hurdle away at the Olympic Games from an Olympic gold medal. And I hit a hurdle and it cost me everything. And I'm known by that. Like people have teased me on social media because it, you know, but. And then, in essence, had I not hit that hurdle, I also wouldn't have been the few athletes to compete in a summer and winter game. So I've kind of used that failure and turned it into extreme motivation for me. And so I hope that others who have gone through failures and used it, learned from it and just inspired that other people can listen to their stories and just pick themselves up for whatever life is trying to set them back.

And it's funny because every guest I had on the podcast loves the title. And I'm talking about people who, like Carrie Walsh Jennings, who's like the Olympic household name has so many Olympic medals. She can probably make Christmas tree orderments out of them. But she even related to that and was talking about her experience of how she just missed out on the Olympic team this time. So essentially she was like, I am a gold medal loser. I have an Olympic gold medal, but I'm also a loser. And she was just like, and this is what I've used and how I turn the tracks on that.

And so there was only one person who had an issue with it. And that was my teammate, Kaylee Humphreys. And it was just like, but if you knew her and her personality, I totally understand. And so, but everybody else is like Richard Jefferson. He had great stories. And then Hunter Woodall, who was a Paralympian double amputee. He was like, this title is my life. He was just like, I lost it all.

And now I'm a Paralympian medalist. So he's just like, just super inspiring stories to just get you through whatever is trying to, you know, hold you back. Do you look at 2008 Beijing as a failure or do you look at it as just like a bump in the road for everything else that happened after that? I think I can look at it both. Obviously, I would have loved to not hit that hurdle and just be done with the Olympics. Like, honestly, if I wouldn't have hit that hurdle, won my gold medal, I probably would have been out the game years ago. Like, I don't even know if I would have pushed this hard for a second Olympic team. I would be like, yeah, I'm an Olympic champion. Like, move on, do other things.

But because I hit that hurdle, it was fuel for the fire for so many years. And I think I'm really, I mean, Olympic gold medal would be a huge honor, but I'm not going to lie, being able to call yourself a summer and winter Olympian is pretty badass. And only 11 Americans can say that. And so there's thousands of an Olympic gold medal. I know that sounds weird, but like there are a lot of Olympic champions, if you add them up. In the history of the Olympics, though, only 11 Americans have made a summer and winter team. So it's a pretty cool stat. And I mean, I think I'll be able to like one day, if I'm not inspiring the masses,

I'm tucking my kid, whenever I have kids, tucking into bed at night, he's like, mom, tell me a bedtime story. I'm going to tell him that. And so like the little engine that could, I have a real life story that I will tell him to pick himself up or her. whoever the kid is going to be. I love the theme of your podcast. And I'm so curious, what's the biggest lesson that you learned from that failure? I don't know.

I just think, I mean, I feel like I'm still learning. You know, there's times where I'm like, oh, I'm totally over it. And I'm like washing my dishes and I'm crying. I'm not over it. I don't know. Honestly, I can just say not what I learned, but more so like how tough I am. Because, you know, like I said, I've been teased for hitting that hurdle for years. For a year.

Like, even the other day I did a post. It was just, it was just a random post. It was talking about, hey, come train with me and other winter Olympians. And this person was like, I don't want to train with you. You don't have an Olympic gold medal. I want to train with the champion. And I'm like, well, if you want to train with her, go train with her. But she's not a winter Olympian.

I was saying training with winter Olympians. Like, what the hell? I didn't even deserve this attack. So it's frustrating having those attacks for so many years. I mean, 2008 was freaking over, what is a decade? 14 years ago. Years ago and I'm still getting teased for this hurdle. So it just shows me how strong I am to continue to deal with the nonsense, you know.

And not only that, you know, I deal with it in humor. I'll make jokes about it. And it's just, I don't know, like life can not break you. Instead, you can just use these things to just show how, tough you are and just really achieve really good, great things, honestly, from failures. I know people hate failures, but you can really honestly use them as jumping pads. Well, we all have them in our life. You know, maybe they're not on the stage that yours was on, but we all have failures in our life. We all have those moments that didn't turn out the way that we expected them to turn out.

So I think when someone can hear from someone like you that you're able to move on and deal with it and become a better person because of it, I think they can go, oh, wow, that's a that fender bender this morning is really not as bad as I'm making it out to be. Yeah, or it's bad for a while and then something comes of it or some inside or some growth or who knows, sometimes it takes a while. Like, it's not like 2008 happened and I was like the next day. Well, I was cracking jokes the next day. Actually, it was cracking jokes at night.

But there were still moments of pain where I was crying and I was frustrated. There's still even moments now where I'm like, oh, like I wish you just would have won the metal and just been done with it. But then there's moments where I'm like, no, because I wouldn't be the person I am without that. So, and I probably, like, I've used it so much to my advantage, I think, to just really propel my next goals. How hard was it to go to sleep those first few nights afterwards? Because I would imagine when you close your eyes, that's the only thing you're thinking about. I actually didn't sleep. So there was that first night I don't think I had any sleep because I was crying so much. Actually,

went out with one of the other girls who, uh, she ran for Canada. And we went and played basketball in the Olympic Village. Like, you know, like the carnival hoop basketball, will they have like a game? Hop a shot. Yeah, where athletes can blow their steam off. And like, we both were just cracking jokes about how we just messed up. And then I think she beat me. And I was like, oh, I can't even win in this. You know, like we were, we, we were making jokes about it like that night. Um, and then I think after I left the Olympics, I had other races. And I won those races and I beat all the girls that had Olympic medals. So there was some kind of redemption, but it didn't matter because I still had lost the Olympics.

So yeah, there were a lot of hard nights. There were a lot of nights where I definitely cried my eyes out and just frustrated. And I don't know. But there's also been good nights, you know. There's been nights where I've won worlds between that, you know, and broken records. and, you know, made a ton of money from winning races. So it's, it hasn't been all bad. You know, there have been a lot of highs along with the lows.

When did people start being mean about that? Because I don't feel like when it first happened, I feel like everyone embraced you after that first happened. After first happened, I was America Sweetheart. It's crazy. People loved me. And they were like, she's so graceful and she lost. Like, everybody, like, had my back.

But here's a difference. Social media wasn't really. a thing back then. In 2008, Twitter was just starting. I did not have Twitter at the Olympic Games. I don't even think anybody really did. And then 2012, not only did you have Twitter, you had Instagram. And just I noticed the change in how people were as more years progressed with social media. My comments became less positive and more negative because people realized if they said negative comments, they would get more likes and more pings and more chances to go viral. And so I just felt like fans, most of them were cool. But then there was like the 10 or 20 percent that

were just trying to just be annoying or just to be in the spotlight, you know? And so that's when I noticed a change. So 2008, I was America's sweetheart. It was great. And then 2012, it was like when I got fourth at the Olympics, which was pretty impressive since I had. spine surgery a year before and I couldn't even walk. People were furious. They're like, she's such a, she's such a wash. Like, she should give all her sponsorship money back. Like, she can't win an Olympic medal. I'm like, whoa, like, I had spine surgery a year before this race and people are mad because I could not win an Olympic medal. Like, that blew my mind. And also, like, my teammates were very negative towards me because they were frustrated. I was getting publicity

leading up into the games. But it was just like, they also weren't putting themselves in position to get that publicity. Like, they weren't active on their social medias. And like, I've always enjoyed being on social media. I loved tweeting. I loved,

I just always loved interacting with my fans. And so that always caused me to be more in the spotlight because I would just be telling jokes and be more out there. I mean, if you have an athlete who barely posts on their social media,

it's hard for fans to, like, really know that person as opposed to someone who's like, hey, look into my world. So I was getting backlash from that the social media side and from my teammates at the same time. So it was just, it was the perfect storm. I also think it's so weird that people can criticize from their couches. They're eating like Doritos. Yeah, that's always, it's crazy.

That blows my mind too. So it's like, oh, I never understand that. It's like, you can't even get an Olympic medal. And I'm like, do these people know, how hard it is to even make an Olympic team? It is so freaking hard even to just, it's even hard just to qualify for the Olympic trials. Like they only take, I forget, like 23 girls, 30 max in the whole United States. So even to qualify, you have to hit a mark. It's not like anybody can just show up to the Olympic trials. Like you actually have to

qualify before you get cut down to three people that make the Olympic team. So there's like a lot of girls that go home crying at the Olympic trials. You know what they are? They're gold medal losers. That's what they are. I mean, I've seen even Olympic champions that are gold medal losers because if they can't handle the pressure and if they can't handle being nice and that's probably what I think about one of my teammates has a ton of gold medals, but none of her teammates can get along with her and doesn't follow. None of her teammates follow on social media. Like, I would rather, you can take it the gold medal loser in so many different ways. Like you can be in a

Olympic champion with a piss poor attitude, and you're still a loser in my books. Or you can literally lose the Olympic gold medal and be a nice person, but you're still a gold medal loser. Like, you can spin the gold medal loser title however you want to spend it. Yeah. What do you think is the best advice that you've been given throughout your career? I hate this question. Because I don't really remember the best advice. I'm just like, I don't know. I don't work hard. I don't know. I don't have really best advice. I don't have those rocky moments where a coach was telling me to, I don't have a best advice. I would imagine it's like an amalgamation of all of the advice that you've been given has made you who you are now. Yeah, I don't have a bit.

This is terrible. I like quotes. I mean, quotes are good. Give us a quote. I love quotes. Yeah. You fall seven times, get up eight. I mean, you're always winning. You know, my coach always says control what you can control because you're always at track meets or competitions you're always thinking about oh my gosh this this this this this is this this and like you can't control the weather you can't control your competition you can't control there's so many things that try to just interrupt your fierce thoughts and so he's like can control what you can control

you can control being calm you can control your actions your warm-ups your diligence so well that right there is some of the best advice yeah it's okay Sometimes I get tired of hearing it and it was like, control what you can control. Okay, I'm going to control the fact that I want to leave right now, Coach. But like, if you want to tie this back to social media, you can't control what other people are going to say about you. But you can control what your reaction is going to be to what they're saying about you. Yeah, sometimes I let a slide. Sometimes, you know, if I'm feeling feisty, if I have a good comeback, you know.

I hate it when people, other fans are just like, you shouldn't feed the trolls. I'm like, that makes no sense. Like, sometimes if you have a good comeback, You can literally shut a troll down. I've shut, sometimes I've shut them to where they like, they have to remove their account because people are just dying laughing at how much you put them in their place. So, I don't know, it just depends on the mood.

They're also probably going, oh, my God, I didn't think Lolo would actually, like, see my comment. No, so I've only had that if happens a few times. And that's the worst when they do that with the, because that's what I'm like, so you were a fan, but then you just decided to be mean. Like, I hate that, you know? Like, at least just be a troll because you really just don't like me. Don't be a troll because you actually like me and want to upset me. So I'm just going to block you regardless.

The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Clemenberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking. I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really stake their claim. And they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it.

Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer podcast, presented by Henko. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. When did you first start getting noticed for reality shows? And when did you go, you know what, I think this is something I want to do? When was my first reality show? I think my first reality show was dancing with the stars.

I believe that was the first one. Olympians always do well in there. Not me. I was the first one out the gate. The first one. An 80-year-old lady beat me. I think it was Betty Wider. Not Betty White.

Somebody who was 80 beat me. But no, I was not good on that show at all. When did I get a knack for reality shows? When I realized that you could make more money on reality shows than if you won world championships or the Olympics combined, you know, it's just the Olympics doesn't pay any money at all. You get no prize money. You don't get any.

And it's crazy because the Olympics is a billion dollar corporation, although they hide it as a fact that it's a nonprofit, but it's not. It makes so much money. It's ridiculous. And the athletes don't get any of that. World Championships, if I win world championships for track and field, I get $60,000. And then Bob said, I think is like $10,000. So that's not a lot of money for a whole season of work. Like, that's $60,000 is for the whole year. And world championships is only every two years. So split that money in half. Like, it's not a lot of money in athletics. So when I was on Dancing with the Stars and I'm like, I get paid this and I don't have to do eight hours of practice every day. And it's just like, okay, so yes, of course. And anytime I was injured and I couldn't compete, I wasn't, you know, strong enough to compete in an athletic race, but I was still strong enough to compete on some of these other reality shows. So the reality shows kind of just filled the void of the competitions.

And then, you know, when the pandemic hit, I was like, all right, what reality shows out there that I can do right now until things pick back up. So honestly, I just trying to survive, pay some bills. I don't think I would want to compete against you in like anything at all. Probably like a math problem. See, I'm terrible at math, but I feel like when it comes. So am I. I'm an economics major, but I hate math. I get understand it. I feel like you'd be the person who would be like, you must be competitive in every aspect of your life. Absolutely. I won't even play Uno with my nieces and nephews because I just, there's a kill switch that I can't. It's like, I can't.

it's a competition, it doesn't matter, I can't turn it off. So, like, if we were, like, going to get, like, mail or something, you'd be, like, racing me to the mail. No, no, that's not a competition. And it just, that's an active, you know, it's just something. But then you said, hey, let's race to the mailbox, then yes. Well, that would be a stupid bet by me. Any type of game, you know, card games, I don't play with people, like box games. I can't.

I just, I turn everything super competitive. And so I just, yeah, I like very relaxing things. things. All right. So when you were writing your book and your book's about to come out, does that then become a competitive thing of like, how many copies can I sell? How many lists can I get on? No, because honestly, the book was more therapy and it was more so what really was going on. You know, obviously, I'm very open with my fans, but there's a lot of things I kind of harbored and I didn't really express. Like, I didn't really open up about the hate that I was getting at the Olympics. and how that directly affected me

and kind of the behind the scenes and my first moments in bobsled. So it wasn't more competitive. Sure, I was probably checking to see how my book reviews were doing compared to other track and filled book reviews. But it wasn't like, oh, I have to sell X amount over them. It was more so.

I really hope people like reading my book and I hope that they're inspired by the end of this to go do something that has been holding them back. that honestly was the end goal. Like, I want someone to read this book and read what I went through. And if they're frustrated, if they're sad, if they're lonely, pick themselves up and, like, go charge the world. That's what I wanted from the book.

Yeah, and I think that too often people just see the finished product, especially because of social media. You see, like, the best three minutes of somebody's day instead of the other 23 hours and 57 minutes. Not me. Not me. I really try to show the bad. I really do. You're an exception.

I try. All my stories, I try to keep it pretty real. I mean, I've gotten in trouble by like talking about bad dates and this and that. And yeah, but you're right. So social media for sure is much more polished. Everybody's a lie pretty much on there. If you're talking about your bad dates on there, aren't you worried that people aren't going to want to go on a date with you? Yeah, that's definitely hindered some things for sure.

I'm not. What I do, though, is I've actually. told a lot of the dates delayed. So not in the moment. So a guy doesn't feel, you know, I went on a date with him. And the next day, I'm basically like, this date was terrible. I'll sometimes I'll wait even two to four years. And I'm like, then I'll, I'll tell the date, you know. So that person's not even in the picture anymore, you know. So. But yeah, it's not probably smart to do it. I have, I've stopped doing it as much until I get a ring on this finger. And then I can go a little bit more. ham. Are there any parallels at all between the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics in terms of where you were competing? What do you mean? Does hurtling at all help you to become a great bobsled athlete?

You have to know, like the turnover, the speed definitely helps the velocity of a bobsled. The velocity is what the two athletes, once they get in the bobsled. how much speed they have calculated once they load. And because I'm used to jumping over an obstacle, jumping into like a bobsled, I always had one of the top velocities on the team, which is huge. And then when I would go back from bobsled, I had all this power because I pretty much get really, really strong.

I start power cleaning 220 pounds for work sets. And in track and field, my work sets are like 180 pounds. So that's a massive difference. difference. I go back to track and that power is so high that coming out of the blocks, no one can beat me for the first, you know, few steps. I'm destroying them. But then because I've been a bobsled, I got to get my speed back. So they are like a yin-yang. For sure, they've helped each other out over the course of my career. What does it mean to be the Charles Barclay of the Olympics? I was just making another joke about losing that Olympic gold medal.

Well, Charles Barkley, you know, he gets teased all the time because he doesn't have a championship ring. He's one of the best NBA players. I mean, amazing athlete. And to this day, he gets teased nonstop not only by fans, but also his peers for not having that ring. And like, I don't know. I just relate to that because I get teased all the time, even though I am a world champion. Trust me, I'm a three-time world champion, which is the highest of the high for us. and I get teased all the time for not having an Olympic medal.

So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to put this on my bio. I'm the Charles Barkley of the Olympics because I've been to a summer and Olympic, summer and winter games. But yes, I don't have an Olympic medal. You got me. So I'm just going to call myself the Charles Barkley.

There's still a chance there, isn't there? Like the winter Olympics around the corner? No, winter Olympics just finished out. Yeah, but they were late this year. Yeah, they were late. And I mean, it's going to be really hard. Like, I'm not going to lie. Like if I tried to make another push, especially for track and field, it would be really, really tough.

It's probably like 2% chance. But here's the thing. I'd had a 2% chance the first time I made my team. And I had a 2% chance the second time because it is so hard to make an Olympic team. It is so freaking hard. Like I remember when I was trying for the London Olympic team, they actually, the sports announcer is like, she has a 0% chance to make this team. Like 0% and I made the Olympic team.

Olympic team. So if I was a sprinter, like if it was a hundred meter runner, I'd be like, you know what, my time is done. This is like there's, you know, zero, zero, zero. But here's the thing. I lost an Olympic gold medal because I hit a hurdle. And I've seen the fastest hurdlers in the world hit hurdles at Olympic trials. And anything can happen in a hurdle race. Like I went into the London Olympic trials, one of the slowest to qualify for the Olympic trials, and I got third. So, I mean, I don't know. I'm not, I don't even think I, I don't know when I'm going to retire. I could retire tomorrow, you know, who knows. But right now I'm still fit enough. I still have the speed. It's just, for me, it's more so about staying healthy. As you get older, you get injuries more often. It's

harder to recover. And so that's really what's the hard part about being an older professional athlete. Bringing this back around at Tom Brady, you got to get, you know, he has Alex Guerrero, who's like his stretching guy. You got to get one of those for you. Yeah, well, if I had Tom Brady salary, I would freaking do, I mean,

I don't even know, he's probably spending so much money on his body, because I spend a lot of money on my body maintenance, and if I had Tom Brady money, I would for sure have a huge chance to make the Olympic team. Because I would just have someone go to practice with me, follow me around. I'd have a, you know,

dietitian, nutritionist, all those things I do on my own. You know, like I'm on Olympic, Olympic money. So I don't have a personal chef. I'm making all my own stuff. You know, I'm, you know, Tom Brady Bright doesn't even go to, he doesn't go to a grocery store. I have to go to a grocery store, get my healthy food, cut it up, you know. He has someone just prepping all that for him so he can rest, recover. So yeah, we're in different, uh, different lifestyles. Why don't you get like a meal delivery service to just ship you the meals that you need? Yeah, I've thought about that. but a lot of them are like not.

I'm actually really love cooking and I'm a great chef. And so I love fresh food. I love healthy stuff. So even though I'm exhausted, I actually do enjoy cooking and having great meals. So having something come in a box pre-prepared doesn't really sound appetizing to me. But if they want to sponsor me, I love the boxes in the meal.

They're so good. They're so healthy. Oh my gosh. No, I can't do it. There's the ones where they send you the ingredients, then you make it. Yes. still, if you are a true chef, you like to go to the grocery store, you like to feel the cilantro,

you like to smell it to make sure it's fresh and the fish you have to make sure. I don't know. I like it. I don't like grocery shopping, but I'm very picky about my food when I do grocery shop. What's your favorite aisle at the grocery store? The aisle that I shouldn't be in, the snack aisle. Oh, yeah. Who's like snacks for sure, then probably the cheese area. None of that should I, I shouldn't be in any of those aisles. Then I'd probably say like the seafood.

Yeah, some seafood. And yeah, right now I'm on a lettuce kick, salads and all that. I'm making polka bowlers every day. Yeah. What do you think is the, like, if someone wants to follow in your footsteps, they want to be an Olympian and they're in high school right now. What are the steps they? I'd say don't do it.

Don't do it. Pick a sport that makes you money. Tennis, golf, baseball, choose. anything but the Olympics. What are you doing, kid? Don't do it. Do you want to be poor? But they're really fast. They're like, you know, they're the fastest track and field athlete at their high school. If they're the fastest track and field athlete in their high school, learn to throw or catch a football and become the best in the NFL and make millions. Because even, you know, the, who's the practice squad makes 500K a year, right?

Something like that. I think the league minimums in the 600s for the NFL. There are very few track athletes that make 500K a year. Like they have to be crushing it. Like crushing it. It's really hard in track and field. Like probably four years ago, I would have told this athlete to go pro in track and field. But there has been a significant decline in sponsorships in track and field in the Olympic sports. It's becoming very, very hard for athletes to make a living.

Most Olympic athletes have other jobs, whether they're nannies, their substitute teachers. It is really a hard lifestyle. But if you want me to go back to your original question and you said they're the fastest, my advice for them, I guess just, I don't know, it's going to be a long, long road and, you know, never get too confident after a string of victories because there's always someone up and coming and never get too hard on yourself after a string of losses because you can rebound. So that would be my advice to them. Do you think this ever shifts that there was a point, you know, when Major League Baseball players, however money decades ago. They were working day jobs and then playing baseball. Do you think this ever shifts with the Olympics? Well, we're actually on the reverse shifts.

So back in the 80s, track and field used to make a ton of money. Like, they used to come back with wads of $100,000 in cash. Like, they were just crushing it on the European scene. And that all started to just start to fade away every decade. It's just been significant drop in money for track and field. But like the Marion Jones era was probably like the last era. And I think it's partly due to her because her and other people having the drug speculations, anytime, you know, you have an athlete that was so highly regarded and like the face of USA track and field and then like the doping bands and this and that. Like fans don't like that. They hate that. And so it kind of takes our sport and just, you know, it's all these little like knife cuts. Anytime there's a doping ban, it's like, oh, well, then everybody assumes everybody's cheating.

And no one wants to watch the sport. So I think it's a little bit about that. I think our sport has, there was some corruption in it a little bit. And I think the Olympics needs to just actually do more diligence in helping out athletes. Like, there's not even health insurance for these athletes. Like, you get health insurance. You have to get ranked to get health insurance. But you know, in the NFL, you know, if you're in the league for a certain amount of years, you're actually taken care of after you retire. There's a whole setup for these athletes that are retired and they fought very hard for that. Well, when you're done with the Olympics, your health insurance can be cut cut like the next month. Like I've not made Olympic teams and they cut my health insurance and I had no

health insurance for like a whole other year. And so, and I'm three, three time Olympics. And, you know, I've had three surgeries because of being in bobsleds going over hurdles. I've had all these surgeries. and when I'm done being an athlete, I am on my own. There's no fun to take care of me. There's no retirement fund. There's no insurance I can dip into. And you think about how much the Olympics makes off of all the commercials. Anytime people watch the Olympics, you know, you see all the ads, all those commercials.

That is not going to the athletes at all. And it should. There should be bare minimum. Athletes should get $10,000 to compete in the Olympic Games because they're providing content for television and people are watching those games. games. And there's, it's not just Americans that are at the Olympic Games. There's, you know, athletes from very, very poor countries. Africa, like $10,000 for someone in like a small town. That's a life-changing thing, you know, even Americans would be happy. Some Americans would be thrilled to get $10,000 and it would carry them, you know. So it's just, I don't know,

things just got to change. This is just like a taste of what your podcast is all about, because you do talk about a lot of like this stuff too. Yeah, I talk about the, Olympics more so on my book and I go ham like I break down the numbers the actual figures I mean it took a lot of research how much the Olympics is actually making how much they actually give back to the athletes on like special assistant programs which is not a lot like I break that so if you're into that and that kind of stats like it's really interesting my Michael Phelps agent actually helped me with that because I didn't have all the information and it was really hard to decipher through all of it but yeah it was a it was pretty cool. So what's the book called so everyone can go and get it?

Over it. Over it. Like it's like I'm over losing. I'm over it. And then also over like over hurdles. It's like, you know, it can be multiple means. Well, wherever you're listening to this right now, you can find Lolo's podcast, Gold Medal Loser. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you for taking the time to do this. No worries. They thank you for having me. And I hope that next time people watch the Olympics, they just cheer a little bit harder for athletes knowing kind of the background of what they go through, whether they win or lose, and just the hardships that they're fighting. I end every conversation with the same question because I love gratitude. I say out loud three things I'm grateful for every single day. So what are three things that you're grateful for today?

Oh, I'm grateful for right now for my health. I'm really grateful for a loner car because my car is leaking coolant. So they gave me, oh, that's never good. It's a small thing, but I'm so happy for it because I have wheels. Is this your radiator? Your radiator's broken? I don't. It's not, bro. It's just like a slow leak.

But anyways, I hate car problems, right? But anyways, they gave me a dope loner. So anyways. And then the third thing I'm grateful for is my teammates, just being back with my track and field athletes, because they're just really good for my mental health. Love it. Lolo. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Bye. Well, there we go. Big thank you to Lolo for joining. us on this one. Big thank you to you, as always. And since this episode here is going to be done in less than a minute, go check out her podcast called Gold Medal Loser. Check it out wherever you're listening to this right now. Also, take a screenshot. Let us know what resonated with you the most here. I'm sure you have a friend of yours who's a big Olympics fan or a big fan of Lolo. Share this with them.

Tag us on social media. She is at Lolo Jones. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. We can repost it if you tag us on there. And let's end with this quote from Mother Teresa, who said yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you

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