“I think Shaq, honestly, is high on some pain medicines. The list is so big with LSU.”
[autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] is quickly making a name for herself as one of the all-time greats in the LSU canon after leading the program to its first women’s basketball championship.
Reese’s career isn’t over. After earning All-American honors this season, she’ll be back looking for a repeat (and to become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft next spring).
Still, former LSU men’s basketball star and NBA Hall of Famer [autotag]Shaquille O’Neal[/autotag] raised some eyebrows this week when he called Reese the “greatest athlete to come out of LSU. Male or female.”
She may have a claim when it’s all said and done, but that title is highly contested. One athlete who has a claim to it is former hurdler (and later Olympic bobsledder) [autotag]Lolo Jones[/autotag].
Jones — who won three national titles and earned 11 All-America honors while at LSU — took a shot at Shaq’s characterization, per TMZ, and even implied that pain medication from his recent surgery may have played a roll.
“Shaq knew what he was doing,” Jones said. “Shaq’s just bored. He’s coming off hip surgery. He’s chilling at home. I think Shaq, honestly, is high on some pain medicines. The list is so big with LSU.”
…
“So, for Shaq to have the audacity to say ‘she’s the best ever,'” Jones continued, “I’m like, ‘Bro, chill on the pain meds,’ because that list is arduous. So long.”
Jones certainly has a point. Both she and O’Neal have arguments for making that claim, not to mention other greats like [autotag]Joe Burrow[/autotag], [autotag]Pete Maravich[/autotag], etc.
She later clarified that her comments were not intended to be a shot at Reese but rather to point out the proud history of the athletics department and her track and field program, specifically.
“We’re not hating on Angel. We love to see it. She’s cooking. Let her keep cooking. But I’m telling you, LSU track and field is the powerhouse for that university.”
The debate regarding LSU’s GOAT will continue, but another special season from Reese could certainly bolster her argument.
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We spoke to the Olympics star about appearing on the MTV reality series.
There have been a handful of college and pro athletes who appeared on MTV’s reality competition show The Challenge, including former Chattanooga tight end Fessy Shafaat and ex-arena football player Zach Nichols.
But it’s safe to say there hasn’t been an athlete with the pedigree and fame of Lolo Jones, who has competed in both the Summer Olympics (in 2012, she finished fourth in the 100m hurdles) and the Winter Games (as a brakewoman for the United States bobsled team in 2014).
Jones spoke to For The Win ahead of the season premiere (Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on MTV) all about how she got onto the series and what she did to train while in the middle of preparing for the 2021 Olympics (this interview has been condensed and edited).
Lolo is no stranger to competition but this is a different ballgame.
What’s it like to go from Champs vs. Pros, playing for charity and now you’re participating in a game for money you can take home?
For me, it was fun. At the end of the day, it was nice to be able to compete because everything this year was shut down for me, with the Summer Olympics being postponed and then I tried to go to bobsled and they had delays in their season. I was like, man, I want to compete in something. The whole time I’m on the show, people are like, “oh my gosh, it’s a million dollars!” and I was like, “I’m just here to compete.”
How did it all come about? Did you approach MTV or vice versa?
We’ve had conversations in the past after Champs vs. Pros. I talked to the vets when I was on the show, and they were like, “This is what’s different or the same.” The athlete in me says, “Hmm, I wonder how much harder the competitions were on the regular season.” The vets would say, “If we did this (challenge) on the real season, this height would be higher.”
Did you see those differences?
They definitely weren’t lying about the heights. They’re doubly or triply higher for sure. That was cool. The one thing is on Champs vs. Pros, we filmed a whole season in a condensed amount of time. We shot really long hours and days because we were doing multiple episodes in a day. The benefit was you could stay in hotel rooms as opposed to 40 people in one house.
Did you watch any seasons since Champs vs. Pros? If so, did it help you?
The Olympics got shut down for me. So I was like all of America, just trapped and watching TV nonstop. After you binge everything on other platforms, The Challenge was the only show coming out fresh. I wondered if they were still filming in the middle of the pandemic, so it sparked my curiosity.
Once you knew you were going on, how did you prepare?
I started switching my workouts to longer distance, endurance stuff. I’m a sprinter naturally. I don’t typically run anything longer than a mile on a regular basis. From watching the show, I knew there were long-distance challenges and the finals was like a marathon or ultramarathon. My track runners were laughing at me because I would do track workouts and then say “Give me a math problem or puzzle!” between rounds. That’s very similar to what you do on challenges, you’ll do an obstacle and then a puzzle or a math equation or something. They were all laughing at me before I left.
That’s actually smart given the format these days!
When I was on the show, I told people there how I trained. They told me they didn’t train like that. Most of them thought it was a unique concept.
Without giving too much away, did that help you?
I think what hurt me in this preparation, I was literally training for the Olympics coming into The Challenge. I tried my best, but in reality, I only had about two or three weeks where I could do proper Challenge training and I will say this: with any competition, you need months, not weeks.
Did your name recognition help with politics in the house? Were they intimidated to face you?
I was nervous it was going to hurt me just because it was the first time an Olympic athlete was on a real season of The Challenge and that was going to put a target on my back. (Competitors) told me they pulled up my track races and looked at all the aggressive faces I make when I’m running, they were like, “Oh my gosh, this is who we have to compete against.”
In the most recent season of the show, you had to win an elimination and a “red skull” to make the final. This season, it’s similar with gold skulls. Was it weird to deal with that strategy where you have to go into elimination?
I mean, I honestly was like, wow, way to welcome an Olympic athlete in and turn everything into gold because that’s what my career is based on, fighting for gold medals. I think they did that for me (laughs).
I was on Big Brother, I was on Champs vs Pros, so I felt well-versed for the politics and physicality The Challenge requires. This season, it was multiplied by five. You really did have to be a mastermind in both physicality and politics.
What are you up to now? Training for the bobsled team in 2021, right?
I’m at training center right now, we just had team trials, that was a grueling competition. We’re waiting to get clearance to go to Europe and compete.
How are your prospects for the 2021 Games?
I made the national bobsled team, so that was a huge step. I was really worried about that because I was losing my strength and weight on The Challenge. Bobsled requires me to be really strong and heavy, and as I mentioned before, The Challenge requires me to be lighter for more endurance. I was nervous about my preparation for team trials, but I’m glad I was able to make that team coming off a reality show. For me, that was a huge accomplishment.
Three-time Olympian Lolo Jones is a rockstar who appears to be handling the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics relatively well, all things considered.
When USA TODAY Sports broke the news that the International Olympic Committee was planning to postpone the Games — one day before it officially did — because of the global COVID-19 outbreak, the American hurdler and bobsledder made a joke about ordering a pizza and delaying her retirement from the track for another year. And while quarantining, she’s been posting funny videos to social media about how she’s killing time and working out — like bench pressing her couch.
So not only did her boredom lead her to try the handstand t-shirt challenge, but she also one-upped the people who made the challenge go viral: Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal. The Spider-Man actor shared a video of him doing a handstand while putting on a shirt and challenged Gyllenhaal, among others, to do it. And he did.
But like an elite athlete, Jones took it a step further. She put on two t-shirts while upside down on her hands *and* did it while having a glass of wine.
when I saw Spider-Man and Jake Gyllenhaal do a handstand challenge with one shirt…
first I want to thank them for having their shirt off because I haven’t seen a man in 25 days and also pic.twitter.com/BpQTiOsDY3
Postponing was really the only choice the International Olympic Committee had because, in addition to it not being safe to gather massive groups of people from around the globe during a pandemic, training facilities are closed. With only a few months out from the Games’ original start date, athletes everywhere are unable to train properly
But that’s not stopping them from attempting to train in some capacity. While practicing social distancing and staying at home, several Olympians and Olympic hopefuls are finding incredible and innovative ways to try to stay in shape and practice their respective sports at least a little.
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So we rounded up a bunch of videos showing off their creative workouts, which are really quite amazing.
April Ross, American beach volleyball player, 2-time Olympic medalist
Paul Chelimo, American track runner, Olympic silver medalist
Trying this out in case, there is a curfew! No Treadmill, No Problem!!!!!!! Tough Times calls for Tough Measures. I'm not about to show up at the Olympics Trials out of shape😅😅 Go Hard or Suffer the Rest of Your Life! pic.twitter.com/N71J2G1all
It was inevitable. The 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will not be held as scheduled on July 24, which means Lolo Jones’ retirement can wait.
While every other major sports league across the globe suspended seasons amid the coronavirus pandemic, the IOC seemed to be operate in a state of denial — hoping that the Tokyo Olympics could go on as scheduled. But with Canada and Australia both pulling out of the Games, IOC member Dick Pound told USA TODAY Sports that the Olympics would be postponed — likely to be rescheduled for 2021.
This was a significant decision for every athlete involved as just training for these Olympics put their health at risk. And for Jones, who was trying to make a return to the Summer Olympics at 37 after competing in the Winter Games as a bobsledder, this meant a delay on those Olympic dreams.
She wasn’t too upset about that, though.
🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 someone order me a damn pizza I got another year before I gotta be ready for the games 😂😂🤰🏽 https://t.co/yQmI8tUZLV
The Olympics getting postponed meant that Jones could finally take a break from training and enjoy some pizza. She also poked fun at her age compared to the other athletes come 2021 (she’ll turn 39 in August of next year).
But as Jones initially responded with some excellent jokes, she also made note that this was the only appropriate decision that the IOC could make.
jokes aside I’m so happy the Olympics was postponed. I was vocal for so many days. I’ve had so many calls with athletes who have been in tears trying to train for their ultimate dream but not wanting to jeopardize their health. This was the right thing to do. May the world heal
