Track’s Jones goes from homeless to hero
A businessman needs a laptop. Athletes need massages and the right diet.
Photo By Adrian Dennis, AFP/Getty Images
Article By Bryce Miller, Gannett News Service
USATODAY.com
BEIJING — Every morning, when the kids showed up for the church summer camp at the Salvation Army building in Des Moines, Lolo Jones, her sister and brothers were already there.
Day after day, Jones bounced around the gymnasium as others walked in.
She owned boundless energy, an infectious smile, but also a guarded secret. The woman picked by some to win the gold medal in the 100-meter women’s hurdles at the 2008 Summer Olympics lived in the basement.
“I remember we had to wake up earlier than when the kids started arriving, so they wouldn’t tease us,” she said. “Me and my brothers would get up and we’d be in the gym before the other kids got there.
“So it kind of looked like our parents were the first to drop us off at the camp.”
These Olympics are positioned to be a global introduction for Jones, a 26-year-old graduate of Des Moines Roosevelt High School.
Oakley launched a campaign for its “Enduring” sunglasses line that features Jones, the Olympic Trials winner and reigning world champ in the 60-meter indoor hurdles.
The United States Olympic Committee will bring three women’s track stars to a Thursday press conference with international media: Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards, Olympic silver medalist and world champion Allyson Felix — and Jones.
Photo By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY
A life that included homelessness now resonates with world-stage possibility.
“This is not like a Dream Team basketball person that has a multi-million dollar contract,” said Kim Carson, another Roosevelt track star who helped Jones since junior high on and off the track and traveled to Beijing. “This is a kid who had nothing.”
Growing up, Jones attended eight different schools in eight years as her single mother bounced between Texas and Iowa, often holding down two jobs to support her children. Jones’ father, who spent time in the Air Force and jail, “wasn’t really in the picture much,” she said.
While in third grade, Jones estimated, the family ended up in the basement of the church.
All the moving and all the change eventually became too much for Jones, who decided against a move to Forest City, telling her mother, ” ‘Mom, I can’t go to a city that doesn’t have a track. I’m trying to pursue my dream.’ “
The decision began a stretch where Jones lived with three families, including the family of Randy Essex, a former assistant managing editor of The Des Moines Register who now works at the Detroit Free Press.
Essex noticed at youth track events his son participated in that no one seemed to be in the stands cheering Jones, a blossoming star.
“It was a really family-oriented club,” Essex said. “I asked (the club organizer) after practice why there were no parents or adults around Lolo.”
That conversation eventually led to Jones moving in with Essex and his family for about 16 months, beginning in August 1998.
“When she moved in with us, it was obviously a difficult situation for her,” Essex said. “We were almost strangers.”
Essex watched, impressed, as Jones quietly focused on decision after decision. She worked at track. She worked at track. She worked at her job at the Iowa Bagel Bakery near 42nd Street and University in Des Moines.
“Just a hard-working, dependable kid,” he said.
Jones also lived with Kim Walker, a Des Moines attorney, and his wife, Jean.
Walker watched proudly as Jones returned to Roosevelt recently to hand over new track shoes to her former high school and a $12,000 check to Renee Trout, a flood victim and single mother from Cedar Rapids.
“That’s as good a role model as we can ask for, don’t you think?” Walker said.
When high school ended, Jones landed a spot on the track team at Louisiana State University — a national powerhouse. At LSU, Jones understood the uniqueness of her situation for the first time.
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