Lolo Jones talks Olympic career, social media and magic

Multi-time Olympian Lolo Jones stresses the importance of social media and other forms of self-promotion for athletes. 

For over a decade Olympian Lolo Jones has been competing at the highest level. A star in both track and field and bobsledding, Jones has proven herself to be one of the best athletes in the world on multiple occasions. Now that she may be nearing the end of her competitive career, Jones is branching out of her comfort zone to put herself in new and unusual situations.

Jones will be in an upcoming episode of Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars. The show, created by and starring magician Criss Angel, takes celebrities and involves them in some elaborate illusions. Jones’ episode will be airing this Saturday night but she caught up with FanSided to give her reaction to the experience, talk about her career, as well as give some advice to other athletes.

“It sounded so crazy and I was like, well, I want to try this,” she said in an exclusive interview regarding her appearance on the show. “I mean, obviously, as an Olympic athlete, you’re always trying to push yourself to see what you can do physically and mentally and the best thing about magic is, it involves both. I was really excited to have the opportunity to try some of his magic tricks because I actually went to some of Criss Angel’s shows in Las Vegas years ago, and I was just blown away. So to actually do one of his tricks was amazing.”

Jones was adamant about the importance for athletes to have these sorts of opportunities to market themselves outside the world of sports. Not only is self-promotion a benefit, but athletes such as herself who might be missing the grind of competition or the roar of the crowd can find real joy and benefit being put in situations like this.

“I was shocked by how much physicality was involved. I was definitely out of breath, like sweaty, you know, it’s hard work,” she said. “I’m kind of in that limbo. I’m in the Tom Brady retirement plan where I’m not retired, but maybe I could be tomorrow or not. Who knows? And you kind of just wonder if you gave it your all and you also wonder if you pushed yourself. And then if it’s not that, like, if it’s a former athlete, they probably missed that adrenaline, they miss pushing themselves, like one of the days we worked, before we did the actual show for the live audience, it was like a 15 or 16 hour day, that’s a really long day.  So, being in the moment and being in the heat, challenging yourself, pushing yourself, I think it’s always good not even just for current or former athletes, everyone needs those peaks and valleys.”

Lolo Jones spoke about her career and how social media has brought her more wealth than she ever expected

Back in the early 2000s when Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other social media platforms were thriving, Jones was one of the first athletes to take advantage. He was a pioneer of self-branding and had a huge following when it was a bit taboo for an athlete to be so open and forthcoming with fans. Jones recalls how in her early Olympic days she was shamed for her use of social media and now athletes are almost required to have a social media presence.

“I think more people should be talking about this because like, you’re right, I was one of the first athletes to kind of push myself on social media. I was one of the first athletes to get Snapchat, I always spent a lot of time on Twitter,” she said. “And I remember back at my first or second Olympics I got so much flack for being on social media, I mean even Ato Boldon who was an NBC reporter was like ‘well, maybe if you wouldn’t have spent so much time on social media you wouldn’t have won a medal’ which is so stupid because a pro athlete has a ton of time after the workout. But now it’s back 10 years later, I make more on social media than I did at the height of like when I was an athlete, and I was sponsored by so many shoe companies and this and that.”

Jones urges young athletes to take their self-branding into their own hands and make sure they are utilizing social media. The amount of money that can be made from sponsorships and partnerships can sometimes be more lucrative than money to be made by competing alone, especially when it comes to women in sports.

“So I actually tell younger athletes, to focus on social media because you have such a short time to be an athlete. I’ve had a long career but I’ve seen so many people come and go. I think people have careers for three years, five years,  a very small window. But if they can use the platform of their social media, they usually have thousands of followers where they can leverage that. Whether it’s being a content creator, or whether that’s working for other companies. I’ve seen so many more job opportunities for pro athletes through social media, even with the explosion of Tik-Tok,” she said. “So I think athletes should look at being professional athletes and taking care of things on the field or on the track, but also invest time and social media.”

Jones has been able to expand her athletic career and broaden her opportunities not only through her use of social media but by making the transition over to bobsledding. She had gone to two Summer Olympic games as a track athlete and added on another Olympic appearance at the 2014 Winter Olympics In  Sochi. The transition between the two has been ongoing and although Jones did not qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics, is still training at the track. She teased that some details on her career will be brought to light on the “Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars” show.

“I think that’s what’s cool about the show is you’ll kind of see that, you’ll see where I’m at in my career, because you can kind of see the emotions of just everything because we filmed it and I was still fresh off like not making my last Olympic team, feeling older as an athlete, kind of wondering what to do. And you can see that in some of my illustrations, and like it comes out.,” she explained. “All I can say is I’m on my day three of training for tracking and field, I know the Summer Olympics are like a few years away, but I’m not even focused on that, I’m focused on what can I do this year. Do I still love competing? Can my body still handle the workload? So I kind of have to just take it season by season and not make any long-term commitment.”

Jones’ episode of Criss Angel’s Magic With the Stars will air on Saturday, Nov. 5 on The CW and Hulu.