Lolo Jones has received her share of criticism for all the attention she has received during her Olympic career that has yet to produce a single medal.
But one aspect of Jones' career that cannot be criticized is her willingness to do what it takes to compete at the highest level.
The Denver Post reported that Jones has added 27 pound to her frame in her quest to qualify for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in February as a bobsled pusher.
The newspaper added she'll find out Jan. 19 whether she has made the U.S. team when the official announcement will be made. The team is selected based on a long list of criteria, including recent competitive results and coaches' discretion.
Jones, who was on her way to winning the 100-meter hurdles in the 2008 Beijing Olympics before she tripped over the second-to-last hurdle and stumbled to a seventh-place finish, has competed in track and field at 133 pounds, according to the Post.
But to push a 400-pound bobsled, Jones needed to add bulk to her body. Her four-hour workouts on the track became four-hour workouts in the weight room. And she had to start consuming as many as 9,000 calories a day.
"Thirteen years professional for track, there'd be times when I felt like if I had a bite of a candy bar, I'd feel like my career would be over," Jones told the Post. "To have the floodgates open, where you can just eat anything, you're like, 'This is going to be awesome!' And it totally is, for like a week and a half. Then your body is like, 'Wait, what are you doing to me? I'm not used to this.' I had to find other ways to gain the weight."
She tried eating junk food - bacon cheeseburgers and ice cream, the article stated - but had to learn how to put on lean weight.
The 31-year-old Jones, who also missed out on a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics by .01 seconds, still intends on returning to track and field and understands that that added weight must come off.
"I know what I'm doing is a little bit extreme, but while I'm training for the Winter Olympics, I'm still training (for hurdling)," Jones said to the Post. "I'm still getting in shape. The only thing I'll have to do (for track) is lose that 30 pounds. So I'll be in a very bad mood after Sochi."
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