(Source)
I have to say something here. I’m willing to bet that a lot of people aren’t going to agree with me, and you know… That’s okay. It still needs to be said.
I am so, incredibly disappointed and even slightly disgusted in Kellie Wells and Dawn Harper‘s (as WELL as some of the American public) reaction to Lo Lo Jones‘ 4th place finish in the 100m Hurdles finals at the London Olympic Games yesterday. For those of you who haven’t seen their very classless interview this morning you can see it here
While I sympathize with Dawn Harper’s struggles while training for Bejing; working 3 jobs, struggling financially to support her dreams… I lose any respect I had for her with her ego. I understand that when you’re competing, especially at the Olympic level, it’s incredibly competitive. Everyone is fighting for that Gold Medal. The title, of WORLD champion and Olympic Gold Medalist… But does that mean we lose all sense of our team? Does that mean all sportsmanship goes out the window?
In my opinion, it shouldn’t. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with running as much as I have. You see people crying out of pure joy, just for finishing a race. Jumping on the winner, hugging them tackling them because you’re so happy FOR THEM, even if your race didn’t go exactly as planned… It makes me incredibly sad to see teammates throw each other under the bus like this.
I’m disappointed that all these two women really care about is how LoLo threw herself out there when in their opinion, she never deserved it.
That is complete BS in my opinion. One year ago Lo Lo had spinal cord surgery…. Yes, Harper had knee surgery something like 8 months ago, but to compare the two is a little ridiculous in my opinion. In an effort to not resort to these two women’s cattiness I will only say this: Winners are not only measured in the medals around their neck, but also by the depth of their character.
I for one, am a huge and very loyal Lo Lo Jones fan! She inspires me everyday to get out there and run. I’ve loved her long before the BEYOND REASON campaign made everyone jump on the bandwagon. Since the day she hit the spotlight in Bejing, she has pulled me in. She truly wears her heart on her sleeve, and fights for her dreams. When so many athletes would have given up after Bejing, and ESPECIALLY after spinal cord surgery, she came back both times 10 times stronger, with 10 times the amount of fight that she had before. She’s in the spotlight because she is a ROLE MODEL. She doesn’t talk down upon her teammates, she doesn’t expect the world to love her. She’s real, and realizes that not everyone is going to be her biggest fan, but she doesn’t let that stand in her way of getting out there, and PUTTING HERSELF out there. A woman who never gives up & remains constant in her faith. That, in my opinion deserves respect AND the spot light.
I will always have mad love and respect for you Lolo!! Hater’s gonna hate! 
I cried with you while watching your Today Show interview! I love the raw, pure, real emotion!! It’s part of why you are such a class act! You inspire the daylights out of me. OAKLEY SISTAS FOR LIFE!
(here is a link to her today show interview. Since, wordpress.com stinks and I can’t embed most non-youtube videos. eye.roll. reason #23423 I need to switch to self hosted)
I agree wholeheartedly. Be a champion, but act like one too. The entire world is watching.
They don’t have to like each other, but they should at least show some respect for each other. They were all chosen to represent our country as a team. Is that how you support your teammates?
“be a champion, but act like one too” exactly. they may have one medals, but they are NOT champions in my opinion
HOLY SHIT. The attitude that just came from them – disgusting. That is awful. I have no nice words at all…
exactly. i tried to keep this post as classy as i could, but the thoughts in my head are full of curse words for these ladies. Especially kellie. dawn wasn’t helpful by any means but kellie said the worst of it.
Did you hear the response Jackie Joyner gave today about it???? It was good stuff!
Well had to commen ton this post too. I had not seen that clip and I agree with you 100% How could they be so smug? I mean…the girl made the Olympic finals, she’s a badass no matter what! That really makes me mad and yeah, lose respect for those other ladies. WOW. –Ericka @ The Sweet Life (sweetlifeericka.com)
right. this is the olympics, not the set of MEAN GIRLS
I love your mention of how character means so much more than numbers of medals! So true!!!!! Great perspectives here! SPALove!
its true, in my opinion. i dont care how many track meets you win if you’re still a crappy human being
That’s friggen awful. I was so happy for them last night, and now have a completely different perspective. With teammates like these…
right. I was so stoked that 2-4 was a USA sweep. until i saw the interview, then i was disgusted that they did so well. it breaks my heart when nasty people succeed while the kind, dedicated, GOOD people struggle
I watched the interview this morning with Lolo and she is full of raw emotion. You can tell she was hurt by what was being said, and being torn apart my US media outlets, unbelievable. No one gets to the Olympics in hopes to not medal. Every athlete has worked hard, every athlete has faced challenges, and I was a little taken aback by the statement “I had a pretty good story”, then a rattling of her challenges in an effort to say ‘I worked harder, or I was more deserving, or because she didn’t medal, she no longer matters’ which is crap. It’s classless and both of these athletes came across as tacky, bullish, and a little bit ghetto. There are so many other ways to rise above your challenges and I would have preferred the hear things like ‘Hey we all have overcome personal trials, we all worked hard, and while not everyone can medal, I know everyone deserved to be here and all these athletes are stars’ – Unfortunately, they were so painfully catty, it is an embarrassment. They may have medals, but they certainly didn’t come across as champions.
i absolutely loved lolos internview. she’s so honest, and pure, and has such raw, REAL emotion…. and even after the world struck her down she has not one bad thing to say about anyone. i commend her for that
WOWZA! That is rough and not what the Olympics is meant to be about. Every athlete that even makes it to the games to compete is outstanding, and I commend all of them for their dedication to their training and their sport.
It is too bad because an attitude like that belittles what Kellis Wells and Dawn Harper accomplished. YUCK!
“not what the olympics is about” just about sums up my thoughts. arent the games about bringing the entire world together, letting go of all BS and politics to celebrate athletes around the globe?
apparently we’re ill informed
I agree with you. She came close last Olympics and choked and she had an interview with Fitness talking about how she cried at the end of that race coming in 7th (I think?) after having a commanding lead, but that she was also crying in 2004 ’cause she wasn’t even in the Olympics. I admire her perseverance, especially the doubts she has about continuing with running. I wish her teammates would have said something more along the lines of “well, we weren’t the favorites and I’m proud of what we accomplished, but Lolo did her best,” etc etc. So much more could have been said instead of making such egotistical comments! Thank you for posting this!
They could have said the same thing, better. Classier. no one expects them to be best friends, but come on.. ACT LIKE A TEAM!
Those two still seem incredibly JEALOUS of Lolo even though they may have won…SORRY America likes Lolo better and always will after that terrible display they put on in their interview? Are they in high school?
did they ever stop to think that maybe THIS is why we love lolo more?!
I really like Lolo Jones and hope she knows she is a class act. I am going to assume that most Olympic athletes work hard, deserve the best, and overcome a lot to get to that level.
EVERYONE who makes it to the olympics is a champion, in my opinion… to talk down upon your own teammates, is just not cool. I think lolo knows she won in classiness, compassion, and inspiration
I had no idea about this but I agree! You can`t not be in the olympics and perhaps even win and then don`t act like you achieved and earned it. There have been people who were not allowed to compete because they were unfair and I think that is the way to handle it.
Everyone who puts in the effort to compete in the Olympics deserves the medals he or she gets for the input. That is, if he is a fair sportsman.
I was thinking about the woman from greece who posted something ‘racist’ about her teammates and was KICKED OFF the olympic team for talking poorly about her country. Should the same rule not apply to these women? i truly, honestly think it SHOULD
I think so too, it was her I was also thinking about. At first I thought: why do they kick someone off the olympic team when they post something on twitter but then I read on and understood. But I think this is the same situation!
How rude! And what’s up with everyone saying that Lolo’s too sexy? How is that even possible when she’s wearing what everyone else is wearing? She’s just a pretty girl!
seriously! like they’re punishing her for being naturally attractive? So stupid. the girl is beautiful, she cant exactly control that.
Oh my god, those two GIRLS are disgusting in how they handled themselves in that interview, they should be ashamed!
they will be. it may take a little bit of time but they will feel like idiots, if they have any class what so ever. (which i really dont think they do)
I too watched the interview this morning and cringed. Those were not the words of champions but instead what one would except to hear in a high school cafeteria. What’s even worse is that they are teammates representing the same country. That seems to have been lost on these two.
i did more than cringe. haha I was cursing at the television. My fiance thinks I’m slightly too invovled in this haha. Sorry I HAVE A GIRL CRUSH I THINK
I totallyl and completely agree with you! Dawn and Kellie were a little less than classy — regardless of how you REALLY feel, you’re teammates and you do NOT throw each under the bus like that. Unbelievably disappointing.
exactly. exactly. you’re a team. no one expects them to be best friends and have happy luncheons together. but show some respect!
Lolo went to LSU, (I’m from new orleans) and so I have been a huge fan of hers for a long time. I am so saddened by the way she has been treated by her critics. It’s not right or fair, and the other two american runners make me so sick. they may have a medal but they will never have the class, heart, courage, or inner strength that lolo has.
I wish lolo would read this, and know how much we all love her. the ones who are talking crap are taking over the media, but they are few and far between.
WOW! There is no place for such attitudes on a TEAM. I am certainly NOT proud that they are representing America with those attitudes! Sorry, ladies, give me 4th place Lolo Jones any day.
exactly. the word TEAM sums it up. you support your team, no questions asked. No one is asking them to be best friends, but DANG
wow…could they have had any less class? they sound like clicky high schoolers. that was awful. Lolo put herself out there and worked her ass off to get back to the olympic finals, no one deserves to be thrown under the bus by THEIR OWN teammates. SO disgusting. the NY times article was also horrendous. Since when does our own country put down our own athletes?
the NY times post made me want to completely stop subscribing to them. How tacky. I can’t believe we’re tearing apart our OWN COUNTRIES olympic team members. disgusting.
Honestly, I’d rather just see more coverage of the sports and less of everybody’s side stories and egos. Everyone there has some kind of great story and NBC’s coverage plays into things like this.
I agree. They’re already skipping so many sports. The 100m hurdle qualifier wasn’t even aired! ticked me off big time.
Who even cares either way?! That’s so catty of them – after winning medals, why do they even care that their “story” didn’t get shared enough… they’re the ones with the medals, isn’t that what is supposed to matter (they even nastily said that at the end) anyway? Such a shame… they’re going to look back on that and be so embarrassed, as they should be.
word. EXACTLY. the sad thing though? from kellies twitter feed, she’s defending herself. Doesn’t even understand how the public can view it as catty, tacky, and RUDE
Their behavior is disgusting. It was smug, arrogant, and I hate to say this…because I feel I see it more and more…typical. There are more smug and in-your-face and look-at-me-now athletes out there than ever…and for what reason!?! Perseverance is one thing, but doing it just so you can say “I had a good story, too”?! (And their body language during the whole thing!?! I just wanted to SMACK the looks off of both of their faces!!!) Why!?! Does it prove a point? Yes…that people will reach out to and respect the athlete with more character than medals. The medals don’t matter here for me. They’re far from expressing any sort of humbleness, and that just kills it for me. (What’s the point in having a story if you can’t be humbled by it!?! Oh that’s right…for press.) What also breaks my heart is that Lolo says that when you open your heart, you’re open to more criticism. Why is that? Why the hell have we come to expect more criticism when we open our hearts? It’s just….terrible. I could go on forever about this…
You said basically every thought I’ve had. Everything I bitched to zack about.. haha. he’s so over my complaints on this. He thinks I have a girl crush on lolo… he might be right… ;P
I really like LoLo – and she does put herself out there! Most of these Olympians have struggles and have dealt with A LOT! No matter what, they made it to the Olympics – and if you ask me, that’s pretty bad@$$
Right! I’m pretty sure you don’t go to the olympics without ever having been injured, or struggling at some point to prove to yourself and the world you belong in the games
Wow. I had been proud of those women until seeing this – so tacky!
The real champion may just be Sally Pearson…
Its beyond tacky! i couldn’t agree more