Lolo Jones' hope to make the Team USA Olympic bobsled team has hit a snag.
According to OlympicTalk.NBCSports.com, the U.S. bobsled team made one change to its three women's bobsled parings for the upcoming second World Cup of the season in Park City, Utah this weekend.
That changed has removed Jones as push athlete for one of the sleds.
Two of the sleds will feature the same athletes that competed in the opening World Cup event in Calgary, Alberta last week. Elana Meyers and Aja Evans finished second in the event, and Jamie Greubel and Katie Eberling finished third. According to OlympicTalk.NBCSports.com, the finish marked only the second time since 2009 that the U.S. put two women's sleds on the same World Cup podium.
However, the sled featuring Jones and driver Jazmine Fenlator finished 15th. That was Fenlator's lowest finish in World Cup competition in three seasons.
2010 Olympic push athlete Emily Azevedo has replaced Jones on the third sled with Fenlator for Friday's race. The pairings for Saturday's race has not yet been announced.
The report also stated that the USBSF also replaced Jones with Azevedo for the second World Cup competition last season. Evans, Eberling and Azevedo earned the push athlete positions in the two-woman competition at the World Championships. Jones competed in a non-Olympic team event.
World Cup results through mid-January will determine how many sleds the U.S. will qualify for for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The U.S. is expected to have three sleds for the Games, as it did in the 2010 Games.
The Olympic push athletes will be discretionary selections, according to the report, though World Cup results play a role in the selection process.
Jones already has endured her share of Olympic hardship. She was favored to win the 100-meter hurdles in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was winning the race when she clipped the next-to-last hurdle. The errors slowed her to a seventh-place finish.
In the 2012 London Olympics, Jones finished fourth in the event, one-tenth of a second away from winning a bronze medal.
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