Lolo Jones made headlines talking about her protein shake-powered weight gain Monday, but one U.S. coach told her she could have been better in another Winter Olympic sport without packing on pounds.
That would be skeleton, which is bobsled’s sister sport. In bobsled, extra weight and power are necessary to push a 400-pound sled. In skeleton, athletes race individually, on their belly, face first down the same ice track as bobsled.
“I hate to say this, but after the (2014 Sochi) Winter Olympics, I’d like to try skeleton,” Jones said at the U.S. Olympic media summit, according to The Associated Press. “Not anything serious. Just want to go down and see.”
Jones tweeted Sunday she weighed 158.5 pounds, close to her goal weight of 160. A two-time track and field Olympian, she ran the 100-meter hurdles in the 135-pound range.
In skeleton, an athlete and her sled can weigh no more than a combined 203 pounds. The maximum women’s skeleton sled weight is 77 pounds. In that scenario, Jones’ competitive weight would be about 130 pounds, near her track weight. But skeleton weights vary as some athletes prefer heavier sleds.
The top U.S. women sliders are Katie Uhlaender and Noelle Pikus-Pace, who weigh 135 pounds and 160 pounds, according to the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation website.
The 2013 world skeleton champion, Great Britain’s Shelley Rudman, told the Independent she’s put on one stone (14 pounds) since February.
Jones is expected to return to track and field and give the Rio 2016 Olympics a run, but who knows, maybe skeleton is in the cards for Pyeongchang 2018. Jones would be 35 years old.
