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).
Add on the experience that Jones had while competing for charity on The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros, and it’s clear she’s coming into the upcoming season of The Challenge: Double Agents as an intriguing wild card.
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.
The Challenge premieres, THIS WEDNESDAY at 8/7c! But first, don't miss the launch special TONIGHT at 8/7c on @mtv! #TheChallenge36 pic.twitter.com/KHxcODcLoi
— challengemtv (@ChallengeMTV) December 7, 2020
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.
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