An Unbreakable Mindset

00:00:04 Speaker 1: Comeback Stories is a production I've Inflection Network and iHeartRadio. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Comeback Stories. I'm your co host, Darren Waller. Excited to be here with my friend, my guy Donnie. Donnie, how you doing, brother, and glad to be here with you. Yes, sir, our guest today is a special one. We've been trying to track her down. All the rescheduling and everything kind of gets in the way sometimes, but super excited to have someone who's been a three time NCAA champion, multiple time world champion. I mean, the all Americans in college are almost uncountable at this point, but we have the great Lolo Jones with us today. Lolo, how you doing, Goatherd? Thanks for having me. I'm sorry about all the complications with scheduling. I was just waiting for you to get traded to the Giants so I get free ticket. All good man, It always works out the way it's supposed to. But we're grateful to have. If you want here to unpack more of your story and all the adversity that you've overcome, that's kind of our mantra here on Comeback Stories, and we'd love to start from the beginning with you, we want to know what was life like growing up for you? Well, live growing up. It was difficult, right, Like I had a dad that was in and out of prison my whole childhood. And my mom was a single mom of five kids. And not only that, you know, on biracial. So my mom is white, my dad is black. So at the time, it was different times, you know, like the eighties and the nineties, and I lived in Iowa, which is predominantly Caucasian at the time wasn't really accepting of interracial couples. So I remember we walk into places and there's my mom, who's white, blonde hair, blue eyes, walking in a store restaurant with five you know, brown kids. It was, you know, shocking at the time. And then my dad, who was amazing dad and he's passed away. Now, you know, he just struggled. He just struggle with some things, and like some of it. Now that I'm on the other end of it, I wonder if like you know, I'm just got caught in the vicious cycle or being like the only black guy in certain towns, was just always picked on, you know. But he will admit to his faults for sure, But an incredible dad when he was actually back, like you know, not locked up, you know, and even when he was locked up, he'd always stay in contacts, you know, so you can be incarcerated and still be an incredible father. And yeah, so it's just rocky childhood though, with having to deal with that. And that's why I am the person I am today because there was so many things that are always changed in my life. Like we could never afford rent for a very long time, so my mom was always getting evicted when my dad was incarcerated, and so we moved around a lot. Like I had like seven or eight schools within seven or eight years I got. Every year was a different school, and you know, I just needed to find something stable. And that stability came from playing sports, because you know, whenever y'all a sports team, you have a team and you're locked in and there's a schedule and there's practice and it's the same routine, and so all of my energies just went into that to just I just wanted something that was just like concrete, not changing when everything else in my world was going madness, you know, So no doubt, I mean that's what I was from all the things that you named from, you know, parents that were two different races, all the schools, growing up in an environment where not too many people look like you. I'm like, that sounds like the making for kind of like a identity crisis, just like I don't know like who I am, like how I should be, how I should show up. And it makes sense how being in sports, starting in I don't know what age you started in track, but getting into those environments because you can kind of just lose yourself in that and and you know, exert yourself physically, exhaust yourself as a kid, I mean, that's all you want to do is to go around and play and just have a good time, yeah, and not worry about all the madness that's going on around you. Right absolutely. I mean there was a time where, you know, we were so young and my mom gave each one of us a blanket, like all me and my siblings a blanket. She packed us in the car and she just started driving and I had no clue where where to go, and we just kept driving and driving, and finally we went to a church and that's when I found out that we had just lost her house. We are evicted, and she had nowhere to go, and she was driving around in tears, like trying to figure out where to take five kids. You know, she's homeless. So and we lived in that basement for a month. And in that time, you know, like it was a Salvation army and so they was like I guess a emergency shelter. They had the bottom, so they had some showers and stuff like that, and we slept on these army cots, you know, for a very long time. And but the top of it was this basketball court. You know, so like you know, most churches in or a Baptist not a non national, have some form of a basketball court. I mean that's like it's like ingrain. It's like there's a cross and there's probably a basketball court outside or inside. And this one happened. It was a very small, small church. The basketball court was probably just the size is like the actual Warship Center. And so we had this huge basketball court to play in, and like, you know, I just you know, they had basketballs. I played, and to be honest, I thought it was going to be a basketball player, like a professional basketball player. Like at one point, like in middle school, I was very passionate about basketball, like I'd be outside for hours dribbling, practicing on my own shooting. Like I remember in my middle school yearbook, they you know, they put what Everybody's going to be when they grow up, and they said that like Lolo Jones was going to be a professional basketball player. It wasn't inut All high school that I realized that essentially, I was just really good at the running part of basketball. Like I was incredible at the running, Like I could break any of their best offensive player and shut them down to where they couldn't score because they couldn't shape me. I could. I could stay with anybody. I could break a full court press if they had kwami, I bring it like I would just get the ball to my team. But when I went to go shoot, it was an absolute nightmare. I probably like only scored two points on average per game. You know, so uh learn quickly that you know, running was scor for me. Well, I mean that's looking back, like in that church environment where you said the basketball court was upstairs, Like did you ever at the point feel like, oh man, like we're homeless, or like this is a terrible situation, or did you have a perspective of like the it was cool to play basketball, like what was going on in your mind? Then if you can remember that, well, it's a little bit of both, Like it's like, oh my gosh, like there's a basketball courts. I could play on this basketball indoor basketball corps at any time, anytime I'm on. But then the uncol part was at that time, the Salvation Arma was having summer day camps for kids. So essentially what they had to do is make sure that we were up from the bottom of the basement because there was only one way to get to the day camps, so we had to make sure that we were up before the kids arrived. Otherwise they would kind of see it coming from like this place, you know, and they'd ask questions. So they didn't want the kids to know we were homeless. So that was the only kind of weird thing. Is like trying to protect the like me and my siblings from embarrassment. But I mean, we grew up so poor. There were so many moments of trying to protect us from embarrassment. Like you know, all of my Christmas presents from I think the age of like fourth grade to six or seven came from you know, churches, like one one Christmas imagine getting one Christmas present and that was donated, you know, or having to eat your Thanksgiving meals at shelters or church at free church mills because your mom can't go for the Thanksgiving dinner so or standing in line for you know, uh commodities, you know, food having Back in the day, like I was young enough to actually have to use food stamps, like eat paper food stamps, not these cute little debit cards people have now. I would have loved that back in the day. But like we literally had paper food stamps a book and you'd have to rip it out and go and actually use it. And I would always be so mortified going into grocery stores or gas stations to use them in case, like my friends saw me with my mom using them, and like sometimes I have long because you know, she learned, you know, from my dad trying to hustle the system. So like what they would do is they would have these they give each of the kids, like a five dollars or ten dollars paper food stamp. And if you back in the day, if you would go in and buy a thing, you get cash back. And so like if they're trying to actually payper the rent, like she had five kids, send each kid in and buy like the cheapest amount of candy something and get the real money back and then give the money so you can try to pay rent. And I just remember like wanting to know about my parents. But I'm like, oh, I just want to going for my school sees me like try to like use this actual food stamp. It's mortifying, you know. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel like from in my story, it's it's a lot different on where the embarrassment comes from. Like my as a kid growing up, I was embarrassed of like myself because of you know, I was different. I was weird, I was strange. I was very sensitive, very emotional, and I felt like it I was embarrassed to show who I really was, I mean even as a man, and I felt like I had to go into like people pleasing mode to like overcompensate for that. Do you ever feel like you had to do that because of the environment that you grew up in or completely opposite, I actually went the other out. I was super weird and I was definitely introverted, and I read a lot of I was very nerdy growing up. I would read a ton of books, stay home. I was never really wanting to party or anything. I'm not not a people person because I was never aware of that. Like I was just always just in my own kind of like bubble because I didn't want to have friends because I didn't want them to come over be like, hey, can we hang out? Like where are we going to hang out in some crappy apartment where my family has no food? And I can't I can't have friends over. Like it got to the point where I finally let one one of my friends into my world and she would start bringing me food because she knew I had no food in my house, and like her parents were like, you gotta stop bringing her snacks and like they had no clue, Like I literally had no food at my house, you know. So, uh, I just learned very quickly not to have close friends because I couldn't let them into my world. I couldn't let them into cm we lived. We were all smashed together in the small apartments or you know, if you wanted to hang out, like I don't even have any snacks to offer you, you know. So, Darren, I'm glad you brought that up about your backstory. Because we've talked a lot about this on the podcast, about Darren's story specifically and being different because he was told he wasn't black enough. So it was essentially that is and I'm speaking for him, but his core wound ultimately what led to his I know that's what he was talking about. Yeah, I had that all the time. Yeah I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean I wasn't transfer to people person, but like even to this day, I'm still not black enough. You're as a bi racial person kid, adult, you're never going to be black enough. You're never going to be black enough for the black side, and you're definitely not going to be white enough for the white side. It is becoming more acceptable because more and more people actually inter racial dating, marriages are have skyrocketed. But I remember being at LSU and actually even in high school, but it really came to forefront at LSU because so here's this bi racial girl. She grew up in the north, predominantly in a white area. I mean Iowa. Not trying to shade Iowa. I had a drible upbringing in Iowa. It's a great place to raise kids, but there's a lot of white people, but they're you know, the culture is just not there like it is in the South. It's changed since then, but like at the time, yeah, no, so I you know, I grew up with my mostly my white side, you know, and when I went to LSU, it was a culture shock, like uh, and they went in on me. They they went in on me, and I remember those were like when I had like my first physical fights, you know, because they couldn't understand why I wouldn't say I was black, and like they were. They would get angry, like, no, you're black. You have I don't know if you faces, but it's always like it goes back to this quarter you have a drop, you're it's like this plantation that she repeated, if you have a certain an ounce amount of black and you you're black, and that's like what slave oars created, you know. And I would tell them I was like, look, my mom carried me nine months in her stomach and she is white. And she said it is disrespectful to her for me to claim I am nothing but biracial because I spent nine months inside of a white person and so to not honor her is disrespectful. And they would get years and like this full combative, you know, no you're black, Say you're black. And then there's been times where I was on dates with white guys and they you know, or in a party. There was one time I was in a party with white people and they're dropping the N word, like the er not the like rap song version, like they're being racist, you know, and I'm like popping off because I'm like, I am actually mixed with black, like going hard, you know. And or there's been a time where a guy I went on a date with a guy and where you know, we're talking in the car and he's like, you need to know me, and I was like he asked the question and I answered. I was like, yeah, I'm biracial. My mom is why. My dad's like he literally almost got in a car accident because he thought he was on a date with a white person. Like I was like, There's been so many instances where it's just like whoa and so. But I love being biracial because it allows me to see both sides of the perspective. And I feel like there's times now where I've been able to be the merger in the gap when maybe one side doesn't understand the other side and it's it, and especially as vital as the climate has been lazy, I think we need more of that interracial dating just to like kind of bring in like both perspectives sicks. That's why I brought it up because I as you were sharing your story, I couldn't help but think about Darren's story, because when we first started the podcast, that's what we asked, Like, we asked you that first question, what was growing up for you like? And Darren's answer was confusing. And as I hear yours and in the beginning and growing up in Iowa and being biracial and being in all these different places with no stability and dad not around, I have to feel like it was super confusing for you also, it was confusing. But I think Dan took the route that my brothers took. So my brothers have all struggled with addiction, probably for those very reasons, you know, because as a man, it's the macho, it's you know, you guys are gonna get hit harder on the race thing than I as a female. You know, as a female, I can kind of you know, if I straighten my hair out, I'm a little bit more blendable. I'm not gonna lie, you know, like if I'm not if it's the winter and I lose my tea and I can get quite pasty, you know. So it's just it's a little bit different for the guys. And I think it's interesting because all of my brother well not all of them, two of my brothers have struggled and they've been open with this with addiction, you know. And I instead of having an addiction to drugs or anything, I had an addiction to like sports, like that's where I It was just I was locked in on sports because that's what that was like my saving grace, you know. Yeah, no doubt, and yeah, I mean I don't know a detail about your brother's stories, but I always tell people with as far as addiction is concerned, that I didn't set out thinking like I can't wait to just ruin my life and just crash and burn in flames by drinking and doing drugs. It started with, Nah, there's just a lot of shit going on in my head, a lot going on inside of me that I just want to change the way that I feel. I just wanted to quiet down a little bit. So it's like, you know, you can you can understand men more now. And I'm sure you can understand your brothers because it's like they didn't set out on the past just like be isolated from the fam and mess their life up. It was just like, nah, bro, like I'm I'm going through things. I just want to change how I feel. Yeah, And I think those fights that I was having in college, I remember specifically my brothers were starting to already have those in middle school in high school, you know, like with the race and this and this and that. Know, I didn't really get hit hard until a little bit later, but I was more mature and able to, you know, want how to put those hands on people. Don't did your dad also spend a lot of time growing up in Iowa? Because I would have to think if he was there also, it would be very confusing for him, which would make sense as to why maybe he went down that same road. Well, my dad was not in prison for any addiction. He was My dad was a military. He was golden gloves and boxing. You know, he is some wild stuff, Like I think he robbed a day, Like we don't even know all the stuff he did. Like he's like a cowboy, you know, he's he like he's the type of person that will be like bragging about how one time he outran a cop, you know. But then he's also the same type of dad that would when I remember, we'd always buy these crappy cars because we can't get a nice car. So whenever he would like whenever he would get out of jail, like it's he's back with my mom, like nothing skipped the beat, you know, And we'd buy these clappy cars because you know, we're not that rich, and they'd always break down. All these junkers, they always break down. So like there'd be times where we'd get stuck in the middle of nowhere. And this is before uber lift. You know, you can't afford a cab because cabs are back in the day, they were crazy expensive, you know. So we would get stuck with like a car, a broken car to have to make it haul and we'd have to run, you know. And there would be times where we didn't have a car at all, and we would run to the grocery store and I'd be with my dad like next to him, and he's teaching me how to run, and he's like carrying sacks of groceries and he's like all right, like control your breathing, like work on it, Like calm your heart rate. Like this is my dad in middle school, in and out of prison, you know, he's the one that's teaching me how to run, you know, And so like that's why I'm just I think we're so quick to just throw away people when they well, let's say they have addiction, or let's say they've been incarcerated. And I've had so many precious moments of my dad, you know, in which sweet you know, those crimes or whatever he was locked up for. I think one of them was like, you know, violating probation, you know, or who knows. I think for Darren and I, a lot of times we just didn't get caught and were offered a lot of grace from God. And yeah, I get that. I wanted to circle back to you for path into running where I've heard the story of that you became a good runner because you used to run to school? Is that right? Yeah? Run run? We never, like I said, we really never had a car. So any school I had to go to. I from elementary, middle school, and even high school, I walked every day. And I remember in middle school, you know, you walk in as a teenager you want to sleep in, so you realize, oh, well, like I can sleep it's been more, but I'm gonna have to run. And then it got to the point where I started playing the cello, which was dumb because you have to bring the cello back home every day otherwise the teacher would know you're not practicing and would give you a bad grade. So literally I would have to bring this big cello home every day and then take it back the next day just for the sake of showing her I was practicing even though I wasn't, you know, And if that thing is heavy, and I would like literally be running with this huge cello the size of me because I'm in middle school. And it's funny because you know, that's essentially what my workouts became. So like when I was running to school, I would be like, Okay, you're gonna walk one block and then you're gonna sprint the next block. You're gonna walk the next block, like it was like a fart lick where you run walk, run walk. That is literally I still do these workouts for track to this day. And then carrying the bobs are carrying the cello was like my bobsled stuff, like when I went to the or to Bob's led. We haven't talked about it yet, but I'm one of the few athletes to compete in the summer and win our Olympics. We have to cherry heavy, heavy equipment like massive tools, toolboxes, and we're running and we're in the snow, and it's like that was my childhood. So it was funny because when I first went to Bob's led, they were like, ooh, who's this track girl, Like this summer olympian that has all these followers. You know, she's on all these magazines and models. She's not going to be up for this blue collar sport. Like they were dogging me out and they had no clue. And then when I went out there, I became the hardest worker on that team, and the coaches were like what in the hell, like they didn't understand it, and I was like, I grew up in Iowa. I walked to school, ran to school every day in snow and rain, Like I'm that when your grandma says I used to walk and run in school, and that's me, So back off, because I'm about to show you how to work. That's great, man, Daron. I got to say, Man, I'm loving how you've really made your self at home in the big city. I'm curious, how are you getting around? You a subway guy, cab uber. I'm glad you're asked, Donni. Man, I'm a guy the honor to partner with All American Forward over in New Jersey. They've been taking really good care of me since I got out here, and that's why I love the most about it. Man. They treat me like I'm family, not just a customer trying to get a deal or just a statistic. You know. They give me great service. You could tell they got to commitment to quality. The innovation is unmatched. And just so if anybody's, you know, like me, trying to get around in New Jersey, don't know where to go, I'm telling you go check out All American Forward here in Jersey. They're gonna take real good care of you. When we come back, you'll hear more of this inspiring comeback story. I want to get into, Like, whenever I think of people's like success stories and when they start to really accelerate, I always think of, like, what's the like the parallel journey going on in their inner world. So what was it like at LSU when you're taking off in your career is just skyrocketing? Like, was it the pressure a lot? Was the success something that was like tough to handle in process? I'm sure you got a lot of attention. Like what was it like coping with so much success? Well, actually, that's not my experience at LSU. So uh I remember, uh I went so in high school. I was the best best athlete in Iowa, the state of Iowa. But that's a small state and it's not known for track and field. And I remember, like I was getting letters from all over the country to get recruited, and you know, I could have had my pick of the litter, but the promise because I was coming from Iowa. We ran lower kurdles at the time, So even though I had the fast time in the country, it had it asterisk by my name. So some schools didn't want to recruit me, but like a lot of them did. And I knew I had to get a starship because, like I said, my family's poor. I had no way to afford college. So I just was trucking it and then LSU called. And so if anybody doesn't know anything about drive and field. Let me school you. Elis was like the duke basketball. They have like the most NCAA titles in the history. I like, I think it goes back between them in Arkansas, but like they're the boss. Like they won thirteen in a row of NCAA titles. And if you wanted to be an Olympian or pro athlete, you knew going to LSU was going to increase your chances. So it was hard for me because I actually had an academic scholarship to go to THEI like Iowa State University, and I turned it down to accept this LSU scholarship. And I remember my track coach everybody was like, You're making the biggest mistake, Like LSU's not really known for academics. But I was like, I knew how strong they were in track, you know, and I knew that if I had any shot of you know, continuing, I had to go to LSU. And so they recruited me. And so when I go down there, I'm excited, you know, I'm like, wow, like they want me. They're the best program. So I get there. Day one, I show up, they have signed three other freshman hurdlers. So I knew that one of us was gonna get cut by mid season. Like that's how that they're They're tough. They don't care, you know, they care, but they don't care, you know, and they make you work for it. And so it was a really rough freshman year for me because I had the culture change. You know, I would used to four different seasons, and in Louisiana they have hot and not not really that hot. So the snow, snow, this humidity was killing me. It was it was making me have asthma attacks. Uh. It was a really hard adjustment for me. You know, I went from living in a predominantly white area to now we in the South. Baby, you know, we're listening to trap music. I don't even know what that was, uh, you know, anything from like the food. The only food the seafood I had ever had was like red lobster. And if you have red lobster in Louisiana, they that's disgusting to them. That's like that's like so that's like a sin to have red lobster. You know, I mean everything like from spelled thing go tigers, but it's like yeoh, it's like spelled g E a u X, Like what is that like this cage in French. It was really hard, and you know, and to keep your scholarship and to know that if you don't run fast enough, you will now not be able to afford college because my mom had no money. So I just strucked it. And my freshman year I really had a you know, it wasn't outstanding, but I beat the senior on the team that year, and then I became the first one for LSU in the history of LSU to make a final as a freshman and earn my first All American. And you know, I was solid for LSU. But when you're saying, oh, were you a rock star? No, because the rock stars I was on the team with were Muna Lee and she literally became an Olympian still in college. You know, like I say, it was good, but like we had people just crushing it, and I won an NCAA title individual I think my junior year. But I mean I was in the mix. But would I consider myself a rock star? No? Like did they peg me ever to be able to be good enough to go pro or make it all of the team. No. So I really didn't start to shine until after I was done with LSU. I was good. Don't like people knew my name, but I wasn't like the staple piece of LSU for sure. I was you know, I was good. I helped them win championships. We won three out of the four years I was there. Of the team title. You know, my coach knew he could just rely on me, throw me in wherever he needed me. But I was not the rock star on that team. I can definitely, I can definitely relate my college experience. I got in as a freshman and I was a I played defense in high school and they moved me to receiver when I got there. But they already had other receivers in my freshman class coming in and guys they had in mind. So I'm just kind of like in the back of the pack and playing like some special teams and whatnot. But it never was really a dominant force in college my whole career. I was like always been a late bloomer from my body to football to you know, I didn't really really think i'd go to the league. I was big and ran a fast forty so that's kind of how I snuck in the back of the draft. But but yeah, I mean, but I feel like having that success and what not be delayed was like honestly looking back, like better for me, Like I mean, I still had my my double addiction life, but just looking at the football perspective of it, like I feel like a lot of people can peak too soon, but there's not a lot of people that continue to get better throughout the process, throughout the journey, like long term, and I feel like that delayed gratification and delayed success and adoration can pay off for you. A lot of people don't want to hear that, though, No they don't. They want their kids to be rock stars in college and that I exactly had exactly what you're saying, Like I I mean, I was a world champion even in my like thirty eight, Like that's insane as a pro athlete. So yeah, I really, you know, like I went to my first Olympic trials after I graduated from college and I wasn't even top eight in the US, and like I thought that that was it, and my coach was like, I'll see you at practice next week, and we just went to work. And my first year pro I was like fifth through eighth in every race. My second year pro, I was third through fifth, my third year pro Top three, and then the year of trying to make my first Olympics out of college, I was not only the fastest American, not only the person that almost broke the Olympic trials record, I was the fastest runner in the world. So for me not having ever won an individual outdoor NCAA title in my event, to be now in the best in the world and almost the best in history. Yeah, Like my peak wasn't in college for sure. How did you handle that once you were the best? What was your mindset? Was it? Like? Was your worthiness the self work dialed in and ready to receive that recognition? Yeah, I mean I never So I don't try to put too much emphasis on track or this and that, because obviously my identity comes with my relationship with Christ. Like I'm a strong Christ. That's my identity more than anything, you know. I love track and field, But it doesn't make or break me if I had to give it up tomorrow, Like I'm constantly praying about that. Okay, God, if this is not what you want me to do anymore, Like, let me know, make it clear. So my self worth wasn't defined by being number one, just like it wasn't defined by being not number one. Like I felt like I was the same person when I was getting eighth place in every race, as the same person when I was like, oh wait, you're giving me my own hotel room by myself because I'm the number one hurdle in the world, Like this is crazy. Like I was the same the terman, like let's do work. And even when I started, you know, because my this was how much State thought I was not going to be an Olympian is I could not even get a contract out of college. So like all the people I competed against the college were signing Nike deals Adidas like they were going pro and no one would pick me up. And so instead I worked at a gym, I worked at home depot, I drove a little scooter, you know. I kept my AC like pretty much off in Louisiana, which is insane, like, you know, ninety one hundred degrees, no AC, trying to save money, you know, just hustling and uh you know. So then when I finally got my big shoe deal, I'm the same person. I'm like, I just mentality is like you grew up pro poor, Like just don't even think about the money, so like I just put the money away, like invest it, save it, and I just stayed on the grind, you know, just keep the same mentality. I didn't want to ever become comfortable because I feel like I used that in my running, in my competitions. I think a lot of people could have your same story growing up, and you turn it into more of the victim mindset and really used that story to work against them. And you It's like your childhood and everything you went through got you to where you are today. And I just want to bring back the importance of what you mentioned is your faith, because what you were saying was you weren't your identity, wasn't this track star? And for me that hit home because my identity was baseball, and when baseball was stripped for me from injury, that's what led me down the path of addiction. I had have had seven surgeries on my left knee and had a big traumatic surgery, and for a while I did blame it on that and the doctor and being overprescribed pills. But when I got to the root of it, which was in rehab, when I just was finally willing to get help, the room of my My addiction was the loss of the purpose because I didn't know who I was. There was nothing bigger than baseball for me, and I got all my validation through that. So as that was stripped from me, it literally almost killed me. Yeah, i'd definitely see that. I mean, I don't want to sit up here and act like I haven't struggled with mental health and problems as I have. There were seasons where I had to the sidle thoughts and stuff when you know, I was getting criticized in front of millions because you know, I went to my first Olympics and you know, like I said, I was number one hurdler in the world, and everybody's like, who is this girl? She came out of nowhere. You know, she's so talented, you know. And I went to the my first Olympic Games in Beijing and I was just locked. You know, focus is ever running. Like I remember the semi final race, I actually slowed down and I still set a pbuh because I wanted to save it for the fine. And in the finals, I was winning the race by a tremendous lead. I was on pace to break the Olympic record and I hit the ninth hurdle and literally gold medal was just ripped from my hand. And not only that, when I crossed the line, I saw that I hit that hurdle so bad. I didn't even get top three. And I just remember just crumbling to the track and just you know, pounding the track. And obviously I'm Christian, but I was pussing. I was like, ugh, you know, like I was pissed, you know, and I just started crying. I just felt like that my insides had got ripped out, and I just remember God whispered to me. He was just like, yeah, but you're here on the Olympic track, and four years ago you were sitting at home crying because you didn't make the Olympic team. And so from that point on, I just realized that my failures I need to use them to motivate, you know. And that's essentially what I did. Like growing up poverty, I used poverty to just use it for you know, competing, and then when I, you know, wasn't the best collegiate athlete, I use that to get a contract. When I didn't get a contract, it's like I still fought and then to make my first Olympic team. And then move the Olympic medal in front of millions. I use that to make another Olympic team because that time I had fine surgery before, so everybody's like, there's no way she's bouncing back from this. Her career is over. And then just to keep going. I got fourth at that Olympics, and I was super frustrated and I was just like, man, like, I feel like I'm punching the wall here, like I'm so close to the Olympic medal and I keep coming up short. People are teasing me. They're like, Lolo can't win in anything, like the fact that I hit a hurdle and I never hit a hurdle, and I'd become known as the girl that always hits hurdles. That was heavy, heavy on me to always get I'd be like, let's say it was on Twitter or x now and I'd make a joke about a basketball game and people were like, shut up, girl, you can't even like you can't even get over a hurdle. And they pull up the picture of me hitting and hurd aout the Olympics and use it to tease me, and all that could have broke me down, and instead I took that and I literally dumped it into a whole new sport and became one of the few people to make a summer and Winter Olympics. So I've always one of my favorite things I've always told people is failures are your biggest motivators in life. If you use them, if they do not break you, they can be your biggest way out of the situation as fuel for the fire. Like it fills your gas tank with just motivation to just go. So if anybody can get anything out of this top today is That's what I would tell them, Like, when a set back happens, when a failure happens, don't let it break you. Instead, use that So just fuel your fire to whatever goal you're trying to achieve. Oh yes, that's fire, right, Derek. My favorite quote is Winston Churchill. Success is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Because there's plenty of parts in your story where you could have just folded up or been like, man, this is tough, like from eight to thirty eight, and it's like no like over time, like through these failures, through these circumstances, you've built the character to be able to not only push through those circumstances, but to be able to see them through a new lens, seeing with a new perspective, and actually see them as valuable to help you go to a new level, help you continue to write your story. And people need to hear that shit, because as human beings, we don't want discomfort. We don't want to be down on the track pounding the ground. That's not how we write our story. We want that straight path. But without those moments, you're not here today continuing to share your story and also doing that free from people's opinions from past performances. Like you are who you are, and you have your identity and something greater and you epitomize everything that this show is about. So we appreciate you coming on here and spend some time with us. What thank you? And I just want to say, like what really taught me to be the amazing runner I am? But also just how to just take leaps and strides in life? So as a runner or you feel this too as an athlete, you guys are both athletes. There's always that part of the workout where it's extremely tough, like you're have my hard workout, your lungs are burning, they're about to explode through your chests. Your legs are heavy, fell app you can feel the lactic acid just singing you like beats. Well, I taught myself when I have those moments and a hard workout, to push through that, relax through that, enjoy, embrace the pain, and make it to the finish line. I don't break, I don't quit. I don't give up. And what I found is it hurts just as hard to give up as it is to push through. So like what say my coach has me on repeat six hundred or repeat three hundreds or two hundreds. If I'm like, you know what, Coach, I can't do this and I back off, I'm still gonna be in pain for about five minutes. If I push through, relax, breathe, focus on my breathing, it's the same amount of pain, it's just the control pain, and now I get that high of actually finishing my goal. And so what I try to tell people in life is when you hit that moment of light where you feel like, oh everything is coming at you, it's too hard. You can't push through. If you give up, it's not going to take away the pain immediately. It's literally it's just a different type of pain. So just fight through, get to the finish line, and I promise you that how you get from not being stopped dead in your tracks, it's just worth it. And that's when you really start living. That's when you really start running, Like when you're running a race and you get through it, or if you're competing or being an athlete mode and you're just nah, I'm getting through this. You literally you start to live and it's awesome. And I now I look forward to those hard moments in the practice where I know it's going to try to break me. I'm like, you're not gonna break me. You're not gonna break me. I love that. I love that moment in practice, and I love that moment in life because that makes breaks people. Of course, no one you're saying here. One thing I wanted to circle back to was gratitude because it sounds like, well, a couple things that I think the listeners can take away that you've shared. What is faith like believing in something greater than you, whatever you choose to call it, but you got to I would hope you would know there's something out there, you know, running the show, and it's definitely not us. But then also the gratitude and how I believe gratitude changes the way we see the world. And the last thing to piggyback on what you were saying is how the most self confident and the people that are filled with the most self worth are the ones that keep the promises they make to themselves. So when you say you're going to do something and you don't do it residue of breaking those promises, I mean, it makes us so vulnerable to the internal noise, the not enough story that so many of us have, but then all the external noise, and especially as an athlete, and then if you're dealing with social media and all the garbage and all the trolls on there, when we are keeping the promises we make to ourselves, we really become unshakable, especially with that faith. And that's not to say we're not going to be phased by it, but I don't think it hijacks us as much as it would if we didn't have a faith of practice of gratitude and we were following through on the things we said we were going to do. But I also even think if you don't make promises to yourself, because I'm not a very organized person, and I don't think I have promises to myself, but I will say that I just don't want to be stopped, and I don't I don't want to be stopped by myself, you know, like I don't want to put limits on myself, and you know, like I want to I want to experience life to its fulists and you never experience life more than you come against an obstacle and you have that fork in the road type moment. And so much of society now is just like, hey, take the easy route, take the less painful route, because you really feel like it's the that like it's gonna immediately take away your pain, but it doesn't. Like example, there's been so many times I talked to people and they're like, I wish I would have kept playing sports, but like I wanted to go out and party because they thought that that immediate gratification was going to be better, and at that time it did, but then now they're ten years later and they regret that decision. So it's like, when you reach that hard point in life, if you think backing off is gonna make it the pain go away, is gonna make it easier. It doesn't because you might be thinking about that same decision ten years from now, So you might as well buckle down, do a work push through, and just keep taking another step to get to that finish line. That's all I would tell someone is just when you hit that moment where it wants to break you, instead of be like, ah, I don't want this to be happened to me, Like you know what, I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna shine bright right now, and I guarantee you're gonna come alive. Hey, you heard her. I ain't gonna try to follow that up. So appreciate you, guys. Appreciate everybody tuning into Comeback Stories for another episode. Find us anywhere you listen to your podcast, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, We're on Inflection Network YouTube. Thank you Lolo again and we'll see you guys later. Hi, guys, thank you, hello peace. Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.