Lolo Jones: Staying a virgin is harder than training for the Olympics (VIDEO)
Lolo Jones poses with her gold medal on the podium of the women’s 60m hurdles final at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Aspire Dome in the Qatari capital Doha on March 13, 2010.
Training for the Olympics isn't the hardest part of US track star Lolo Jones' day. For her, fighting off temptation is the real work.
The 29-year-old Olympian sat down for an interview with the HBO series Real Sports, where she revealed how difficult it has been for her to hold on to her virginity.
Jones said, “It’s just a gift I want to give to my husband. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics. Harder than graduating college. … I’ve had guys tell me, if you have sex it will help you run faster.”
Jones was favored to win the 100 meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but she tripped and finished in seventh place.
Jones has won three NCAA titles along with her indoor national titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the 60 meter hurdles. She also took home gold medals at the World Indoor Championship in 2008 and 2010.
Jones added that through the years it has become harder for her to fight off temptation and judgment. “It was cute when I was 22, 24…. [At] 24 to 29 it’s not cute," Jones said. "You get judged a lot, a lot of guys won’t return your calls after they find out.”
Jones said she was inspired to remain a virgin until marriage by her mother's tumultuous relationship with her father. Jones revealed her parents never married and are no longer together, and that she wanted to have that "solemn bond" with her future husband.
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Jones also spoke of her difficult childhood and how it helped her discover she could beat the odds no matter what.
USA Today noted as a child Jones and her family lived in the Salvation Army. In an ESPN documentary on her life Jones said, "I definitely would say, by sixth grade, I was a professional shoplifter — and not because I wanted to. I'm not going out to shoplift earrings or clothes or shoes like the average teenager. I was shoplifting frozen dinners at a grocery store. I could shoplift four frozen dinners, easily."
In June, Jones will compete for a spot on the US Olympic track and field team for the London Summer Olympics.
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