
Lolo Jones has become a lightning rod for criticism over the past few weeks and that culminated in a ridiculous article in the New York Times that essentially ripped her for being attractive and popular outside of hurdling.
On Tuesday night she failed to win an Olympic medal for the second time and people who don't particularly like Jones seemed pleased. To those people I have this to say: get a life.
Lolo Jones just finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles. Fourth at the Olympics. Fourth in the freaking world. Yet some are acting like "Oh, big time failure there. See she's not that great. She should be embarrassed."
This is a woman who made the United States Olympic team for the second time after struggling through injuries for the better part of a year. She has dealt with two hamstring injuries and had surgery last August to repair a "tethered spine." Yeesh.
She came all the way back from those injuries and finished the Olympic final in 12.58 seconds, missing a medal by one-tenth of a second. Yeah, huge failure there.
Why people have focused their rage on Jones is beyond me. The Times article compared her to Anna Kournikova, which is ridiculous. Jones was on her way to a gold at the Beijing Olympics before clipping the ninth hurdle and finishing seventh. She was the favorite in that race, and though injuries have held her back, she has had a fantastic career. Kournikova was a model who sometimes held a tennis racket. There is no comparison.
It's really not Jones' fault that she has a personality people find interesting, is attractive and is willing to share details of her personal life with fans and the media. In fact, we usually demand those three traits from our athletes. Jones has been giving us exactly what we wanted.
While some feel the need to pile on Jones in her moment of disappointment, I think it's time for us to be proud of an American who battled through injuries to finish oh-so-close to the podium.
That's what I'm choosing to do. Hopefully others will follow me.
Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images
Bookmark Medal Detector for more on the Olympics from Rumors and Rants and other Yardbarker bloggers