Speaker 1: Comeback Stories is a production I've Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Comeback Stories. I'm
Speaker 2: your co host, Darren Waller. Excited to be here with
Speaker 2: my friend, my guy Donnie. Donnie, how you doing, brother,
Speaker 2: and glad to be here with you. Yes, sir, our
Speaker 2: guest today is a special one. We've been trying to
Speaker 2: track her down. All the rescheduling and everything kind of
Speaker 2: gets in the way sometimes, but super excited to have
Speaker 2: someone who's been a three time NCAA champion, multiple time
Speaker 2: world champion. I mean, the all Americans in college are
Speaker 2: almost uncountable at this point, but we have the great
Speaker 2: Lolo Jones with us today.
Speaker 3: Lolo, how you.
Speaker 4: Doing, Goatherd? Thanks for having me. I'm sorry about all
Speaker 4: the complications with scheduling. I was just waiting for you
Speaker 4: to get traded to the Giants so I get free ticket.
Speaker 2: All good man, It always works out the way it's
Speaker 2: supposed to. But we're grateful to have. If you want
Speaker 2: here to unpack more of your story and all the
Speaker 2: adversity that you've overcome, that's kind of our mantra here
Speaker 2: on Comeback Stories, and we'd love to start from the
Speaker 2: beginning with you, we want to know what was life like.
Speaker 3: Growing up for you?
Speaker 4: Well, live growing up. It was difficult, right, Like I
Speaker 4: had a dad that was in and out of prison
Speaker 4: my whole childhood. And my mom was a single mom
Speaker 4: of five kids. And not only that, you know, on biracial.
Speaker 4: So my mom is white, my dad is black. So
Speaker 4: at the time, it was different times, you know, like
Speaker 4: the eighties and the nineties, and I lived in Iowa,
Speaker 4: which is predominantly Caucasian at the time wasn't really accepting
Speaker 4: of interracial couples. So I remember we walk into places
Speaker 4: and there's my mom, who's white, blonde hair, blue eyes,
Speaker 4: walking in a store restaurant with five you know, brown kids.
Speaker 4: It was, you know, shocking at the time. And then
Speaker 4: my dad, who was amazing dad and he's passed away. Now,
Speaker 4: you know, he just struggled. He just struggle with some things,
Speaker 4: and like some of it. Now that I'm on the
Speaker 4: other end of it, I wonder if like you know,
Speaker 4: I'm just got caught in the vicious cycle or being
Speaker 4: like the only black guy in certain towns, was just
Speaker 4: always picked on, you know. But he will admit to
Speaker 4: his faults for sure, But an incredible dad when he
Speaker 4: was actually back, like you know, not locked up, you know,
Speaker 4: and even when he was locked up, he'd always stay
Speaker 4: in contacts, you know, so you can be incarcerated and
Speaker 4: still be an incredible father. And yeah, so it's just
Speaker 4: rocky childhood though, with having to deal with that. And
Speaker 4: that's why I am the person I am today because
Speaker 4: there was so many things that are always changed in
Speaker 4: my life. Like we could never afford rent for a
Speaker 4: very long time, so my mom was always getting evicted
Speaker 4: when my dad was incarcerated, and so we moved around
Speaker 4: a lot. Like I had like seven or eight schools
Speaker 4: within seven or eight years I got. Every year was
Speaker 4: a different school, and you know, I just needed to
Speaker 4: find something stable. And that stability came from playing sports,
Speaker 4: because you know, whenever y'all a sports team, you have
Speaker 4: a team and you're locked in and there's a schedule
Speaker 4: and there's practice and it's the same routine, and so
Speaker 4: all of my energies just went into that to just
Speaker 4: I just wanted something that was just like concrete, not
Speaker 4: changing when everything else in my world was going madness,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: So no doubt, I mean that's what I was from
Speaker 2: all the things that you named from, you know, parents
Speaker 2: that were two different races, all the schools, growing up
Speaker 2: in an environment where not too many people look like you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that sounds like the making for kind of
Speaker 2: like a identity crisis, just like I don't know like
Speaker 2: who I am, like how I should be, how I
Speaker 2: should show up. And it makes sense how being in sports,
Speaker 2: starting in I don't know what age you started in track,
Speaker 2: but getting into those environments because you can kind of
Speaker 2: just lose yourself in that and and you know, exert
Speaker 2: yourself physically, exhaust yourself as a kid, I mean, that's
Speaker 2: all you want to do is to go around and
Speaker 2: play and.
Speaker 3: Just have a good time, yeah, and not worry about
Speaker 3: all the madness that's going on around you.
Speaker 4: Right absolutely. I mean there was a time where, you know,
Speaker 4: we were so young and my mom gave each one
Speaker 4: of us a blanket, like all me and my siblings
Speaker 4: a blanket. She packed us in the car and she
Speaker 4: just started driving and I had no clue where where
Speaker 4: to go, and we just kept driving and driving, and
Speaker 4: finally we went to a church and that's when I
Speaker 4: found out that we had just lost her house. We
Speaker 4: are evicted, and she had nowhere to go, and she
Speaker 4: was driving around in tears, like trying to figure out
Speaker 4: where to take five kids. You know, she's homeless. So
Speaker 4: and we lived in that basement for a month. And
Speaker 4: in that time, you know, like it was a Salvation
Speaker 4: army and so they was like I guess a emergency shelter.
Speaker 4: They had the bottom, so they had some showers and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, and we slept on these army cots,
Speaker 4: you know, for a very long time. And but the
Speaker 4: top of it was this basketball court. You know, so
Speaker 4: like you know, most churches in or a Baptist not
Speaker 4: a non national, have some form of a basketball court.
Speaker 4: I mean that's like it's like ingrain. It's like there's
Speaker 4: a cross and there's probably a basketball court outside or inside.
Speaker 4: And this one happened. It was a very small, small church.
Speaker 4: The basketball court was probably just the size is like
Speaker 4: the actual Warship Center. And so we had this huge
Speaker 4: basketball court to play in, and like, you know, I
Speaker 4: just you know, they had basketballs. I played, and to
Speaker 4: be honest, I thought it was going to be a
Speaker 4: basketball player, like a professional basketball player. Like at one point,
Speaker 4: like in middle school, I was very passionate about basketball,
Speaker 4: like I'd be outside for hours dribbling, practicing on my
Speaker 4: own shooting. Like I remember in my middle school yearbook,
Speaker 4: they you know, they put what Everybody's going to be
Speaker 4: when they grow up, and they said that like Lolo
Speaker 4: Jones was going to be a professional basketball player. It
Speaker 4: wasn't inut All high school that I realized that essentially,
Speaker 4: I was just really good at the running part of basketball.
Speaker 4: Like I was incredible at the running, Like I could
Speaker 4: break any of their best offensive player and shut them
Speaker 4: down to where they couldn't score because they couldn't shape me.
Speaker 4: I could. I could stay with anybody. I could break
Speaker 4: a full court press if they had kwami, I bring
Speaker 4: it like I would just get the ball to my team.
Speaker 4: But when I went to go shoot, it was an
Speaker 4: absolute nightmare. I probably like only scored two points on
Speaker 4: average per game. You know, so uh learn quickly that
Speaker 4: you know, running was scor for me.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean that's looking back, like in that church
Speaker 2: environment where you said the basketball court was upstairs, Like
Speaker 2: did you ever at the point feel like, oh man,
Speaker 2: like we're homeless, or like this is a terrible situation,
Speaker 2: or did you have a perspective of like the it
Speaker 2: was cool to play basketball, like what was going.
Speaker 3: On in your mind? Then if you can remember that.
Speaker 4: Well, it's a little bit of both, Like it's like,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, like there's a basketball courts. I could
Speaker 4: play on this basketball indoor basketball corps at any time,
Speaker 4: anytime I'm on. But then the uncol part was at
Speaker 4: that time, the Salvation Arma was having summer day camps
Speaker 4: for kids. So essentially what they had to do is
Speaker 4: make sure that we were up from the bottom of
Speaker 4: the basement because there was only one way to get
Speaker 4: to the day camps, so we had to make sure
Speaker 4: that we were up before the kids arrived. Otherwise they
Speaker 4: would kind of see it coming from like this place,
Speaker 4: you know, and they'd ask questions. So they didn't want
Speaker 4: the kids to know we were homeless. So that was
Speaker 4: the only kind of weird thing. Is like trying to
Speaker 4: protect the like me and my siblings from embarrassment. But
Speaker 4: I mean, we grew up so poor. There were so
Speaker 4: many moments of trying to protect us from embarrassment. Like
Speaker 4: you know, all of my Christmas presents from I think
Speaker 4: the age of like fourth grade to six or seven
Speaker 4: came from you know, churches, like one one Christmas imagine
Speaker 4: getting one Christmas present and that was donated, you know,
Speaker 4: or having to eat your Thanksgiving meals at shelters or
Speaker 4: church at free church mills because your mom can't go
Speaker 4: for the Thanksgiving dinner so or standing in line for
Speaker 4: you know, uh commodities, you know, food having Back in
Speaker 4: the day, like I was young enough to actually have
Speaker 4: to use food stamps, like eat paper food stamps, not
Speaker 4: these cute little debit cards people have now. I would
Speaker 4: have loved that back in the day. But like we
Speaker 4: literally had paper food stamps a book and you'd have
Speaker 4: to rip it out and go and actually use it.
Speaker 4: And I would always be so mortified going into grocery
Speaker 4: stores or gas stations to use them in case, like
Speaker 4: my friends saw me with my mom using them, and
Speaker 4: like sometimes I have long because you know, she learned,
Speaker 4: you know, from my dad trying to hustle the system.
Speaker 4: So like what they would do is they would have
Speaker 4: these they give each of the kids, like a five
Speaker 4: dollars or ten dollars paper food stamp. And if you
Speaker 4: back in the day, if you would go in and
Speaker 4: buy a thing, you get cash back. And so like
Speaker 4: if they're trying to actually payper the rent, like she
Speaker 4: had five kids, send each kid in and buy like
Speaker 4: the cheapest amount of candy something and get the real
Speaker 4: money back and then give the money so you can
Speaker 4: try to pay rent. And I just remember like wanting
Speaker 4: to know about my parents. But I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 4: just want to going for my school sees me like
Speaker 4: try to like use this actual food stamp. It's mortifying,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: And I feel like from in my story, it's it's
Speaker 2: a lot different on where the embarrassment comes from. Like
Speaker 2: my as a kid growing up, I was embarrassed of
Speaker 2: like myself because of you know, I was different. I
Speaker 2: was weird, I was strange. I was very sensitive, very emotional,
Speaker 2: and I felt like it I was embarrassed to show
Speaker 2: who I really was, I mean even as a man,
Speaker 2: and I felt like I had to go into like
Speaker 2: people pleasing mode to like overcompensate for that.
Speaker 3: Do you ever feel like you had to do that
Speaker 3: because of the environment that.
Speaker 4: You grew up in or completely opposite, I actually went
Speaker 4: the other out. I was super weird and I was
Speaker 4: definitely introverted, and I read a lot of I was
Speaker 4: very nerdy growing up. I would read a ton of books,
Speaker 4: stay home. I was never really wanting to party or anything.
Speaker 4: I'm not not a people person because I was never
Speaker 4: aware of that. Like I was just always just in
Speaker 4: my own kind of like bubble because I didn't want
Speaker 4: to have friends because I didn't want them to come
Speaker 4: over be like, hey, can we hang out? Like where
Speaker 4: are we going to hang out in some crappy apartment
Speaker 4: where my family has no food? And I can't I
Speaker 4: can't have friends over. Like it got to the point
Speaker 4: where I finally let one one of my friends into
Speaker 4: my world and she would start bringing me food because
Speaker 4: she knew I had no food in my house, and
Speaker 4: like her parents were like, you gotta stop bringing her
Speaker 4: snacks and like they had no clue, Like I literally
Speaker 4: had no food at my house, you know. So, uh,
Speaker 4: I just learned very quickly not to have close friends
Speaker 4: because I couldn't let them into my world. I couldn't
Speaker 4: let them into cm we lived. We were all smashed
Speaker 4: together in the small apartments or you know, if you
Speaker 4: wanted to hang out, like I don't even have any
Speaker 4: snacks to offer you, you know.
Speaker 5: So, Darren, I'm glad you brought that up about your backstory.
Speaker 5: Because we've talked a lot about this on the podcast,
Speaker 5: about Darren's story specifically and being different because he was
Speaker 5: told he wasn't black enough. So it was essentially that
Speaker 5: is and I'm speaking for him, but his core wound
Speaker 5: ultimately what led to his I.
Speaker 4: Know that's what he was talking about. Yeah, I had
Speaker 4: that all the time. Yeah I didn't know that. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean I wasn't transfer to people person, but like
Speaker 4: even to this day, I'm still not black enough. You're
Speaker 4: as a bi racial person kid, adult, you're never going
Speaker 4: to be black enough. You're never going to be black
Speaker 4: enough for the black side, and you're definitely not going
Speaker 4: to be white enough for the white side. It is
Speaker 4: becoming more acceptable because more and more people actually inter
Speaker 4: racial dating, marriages are have skyrocketed. But I remember being
Speaker 4: at LSU and actually even in high school, but it
Speaker 4: really came to forefront at LSU because so here's this
Speaker 4: bi racial girl. She grew up in the north, predominantly
Speaker 4: in a white area. I mean Iowa. Not trying to
Speaker 4: shade Iowa. I had a drible upbringing in Iowa. It's
Speaker 4: a great place to raise kids, but there's a lot
Speaker 4: of white people, but they're you know, the culture is
Speaker 4: just not there like it is in the South. It's
Speaker 4: changed since then, but like at the time, yeah, no,
Speaker 4: so I you know, I grew up with my mostly
Speaker 4: my white side, you know, and when I went to LSU,
Speaker 4: it was a culture shock, like uh, and they went
Speaker 4: in on me. They they went in on me, and
Speaker 4: I remember those were like when I had like my
Speaker 4: first physical fights, you know, because they couldn't understand why
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say I was black, and like they were.
Speaker 4: They would get angry, like, no, you're black. You have
Speaker 4: I don't know if you faces, but it's always like
Speaker 4: it goes back to this quarter you have a drop,
Speaker 4: you're it's like this plantation that she repeated, if you
Speaker 4: have a certain an ounce amount of black and you
Speaker 4: you're black, and that's like what slave oars created, you know.
Speaker 4: And I would tell them I was like, look, my
Speaker 4: mom carried me nine months in her stomach and she
Speaker 4: is white. And she said it is disrespectful to her
Speaker 4: for me to claim I am nothing but biracial because
Speaker 4: I spent nine months inside of a white person and
Speaker 4: so to not honor her is disrespectful. And they would
Speaker 4: get years and like this full combative, you know, no
Speaker 4: you're black, Say you're black. And then there's been times
Speaker 4: where I was on dates with white guys and they
Speaker 4: you know, or in a party. There was one time
Speaker 4: I was in a party with white people and they're
Speaker 4: dropping the N word, like the er not the like
Speaker 4: rap song version, like they're being racist, you know, and
Speaker 4: I'm like popping off because I'm like, I am actually
Speaker 4: mixed with black, like going hard, you know. And or
Speaker 4: there's been a time where a guy I went on
Speaker 4: a date with a guy and where you know, we're
Speaker 4: talking in the car and he's like, you need to
Speaker 4: know me, and I was like he asked the question
Speaker 4: and I answered. I was like, yeah, I'm biracial. My
Speaker 4: mom is why. My dad's like he literally almost got
Speaker 4: in a car accident because he thought he was on
Speaker 4: a date with a white person. Like I was like,
Speaker 4: There's been so many instances where it's just like whoa
Speaker 4: and so. But I love being biracial because it allows
Speaker 4: me to see both sides of the perspective. And I
Speaker 4: feel like there's times now where I've been able to
Speaker 4: be the merger in the gap when maybe one side
Speaker 4: doesn't understand the other side and it's it, and especially
Speaker 4: as vital as the climate has been lazy, I think
Speaker 4: we need more of that interracial dating just to like
Speaker 4: kind of bring in like both perspectives sicks.
Speaker 5: That's why I brought it up because I as you
Speaker 5: were sharing your story, I couldn't help but think about
Speaker 5: Darren's story, because when we first started the podcast, that's
Speaker 5: what we asked, Like, we asked you that first question,
Speaker 5: what was growing up for you like? And Darren's answer
Speaker 5: was confusing. And as I hear yours and in the
Speaker 5: beginning and growing up in Iowa and being biracial and
Speaker 5: being in all these different places with no stability and
Speaker 5: dad not around, I have to feel like it was
Speaker 5: super confusing for you also.
Speaker 4: It was confusing. But I think Dan took the route
Speaker 4: that my brothers took. So my brothers have all struggled
Speaker 4: with addiction, probably for those very reasons, you know, because
Speaker 4: as a man, it's the macho, it's you know, you
Speaker 4: guys are gonna get hit harder on the race thing
Speaker 4: than I as a female. You know, as a female,
Speaker 4: I can kind of you know, if I straighten my
Speaker 4: hair out, I'm a little bit more blendable. I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna lie, you know, like if I'm not if it's
Speaker 4: the winter and I lose my tea and I can
Speaker 4: get quite pasty, you know. So it's just it's a
Speaker 4: little bit different for the guys. And I think it's
Speaker 4: interesting because all of my brother well not all of them,
Speaker 4: two of my brothers have struggled and they've been open
Speaker 4: with this with addiction, you know. And I instead of
Speaker 4: having an addiction to drugs or anything, I had an
Speaker 4: addiction to like sports, like that's where I It was
Speaker 4: just I was locked in on sports because that's what
Speaker 4: that was like my saving grace, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt, and yeah, I mean I don't know
Speaker 2: a detail about your brother's stories, but I always tell
Speaker 2: people with as far as addiction is concerned, that I
Speaker 2: didn't set out thinking like I can't wait to just
Speaker 2: ruin my life and just crash and burn in flames
Speaker 2: by drinking and doing drugs. It started with, Nah, there's
Speaker 2: just a lot of shit going on in my head,
Speaker 2: a lot going on inside of me that I just
Speaker 2: want to change the way that I feel. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to quiet down a little bit. So it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, you can you can understand men more now.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you can understand your brothers because it's
Speaker 2: like they didn't set out on the past just like
Speaker 2: be isolated from the fam and mess their life up.
Speaker 2: It was just like, nah, bro, like I'm I'm going
Speaker 2: through things. I just want to change how I feel.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think those fights that I was having
Speaker 4: in college, I remember specifically my brothers were starting to
Speaker 4: already have those in middle school in high school, you know,
Speaker 4: like with the race and this and this and that. Know,
Speaker 4: I didn't really get hit hard until a little bit later,
Speaker 4: but I was more mature and able to, you know,
Speaker 4: want how to put those hands on people.
Speaker 5: Don't did your dad also spend a lot of time
Speaker 5: growing up in Iowa? Because I would have to think
Speaker 5: if he was there also, it would be very confusing
Speaker 5: for him, which would make sense as to why maybe
Speaker 5: he went down that same road.
Speaker 4: Well, my dad was not in prison for any addiction.
Speaker 4: He was My dad was a military. He was golden
Speaker 4: gloves and boxing. You know, he is some wild stuff,
Speaker 4: Like I think he robbed a day, Like we don't
Speaker 4: even know all the stuff he did. Like he's like
Speaker 4: a cowboy, you know, he's he like he's the type
Speaker 4: of person that will be like bragging about how one
Speaker 4: time he outran a cop, you know. But then he's
Speaker 4: also the same type of dad that would when I remember,
Speaker 4: we'd always buy these crappy cars because we can't get
Speaker 4: a nice car. So whenever he would like whenever he
Speaker 4: would get out of jail, like it's he's back with
Speaker 4: my mom, like nothing skipped the beat, you know, And
Speaker 4: we'd buy these clappy cars because you know, we're not
Speaker 4: that rich, and they'd always break down. All these junkers,
Speaker 4: they always break down. So like there'd be times where
Speaker 4: we'd get stuck in the middle of nowhere. And this
Speaker 4: is before uber lift. You know, you can't afford a
Speaker 4: cab because cabs are back in the day, they were
Speaker 4: crazy expensive, you know. So we would get stuck with
Speaker 4: like a car, a broken car to have to make
Speaker 4: it haul and we'd have to run, you know. And
Speaker 4: there would be times where we didn't have a car
Speaker 4: at all, and we would run to the grocery store
Speaker 4: and I'd be with my dad like next to him,
Speaker 4: and he's teaching me how to run, and he's like
Speaker 4: carrying sacks of groceries and he's like all right, like
Speaker 4: control your breathing, like work on it, Like calm your
Speaker 4: heart rate. Like this is my dad in middle school,
Speaker 4: in and out of prison, you know, he's the one
Speaker 4: that's teaching me how to run, you know, And so
Speaker 4: like that's why I'm just I think we're so quick
Speaker 4: to just throw away people when they well, let's say
Speaker 4: they have addiction, or let's say they've been incarcerated. And
Speaker 4: I've had so many precious moments of my dad, you know,
Speaker 4: in which sweet you know, those crimes or whatever he
Speaker 4: was locked up for. I think one of them was like,
Speaker 4: you know, violating probation, you know, or who knows.
Speaker 5: I think for Darren and I, a lot of times
Speaker 5: we just didn't get caught and were offered a lot
Speaker 5: of grace from God. And yeah, I get that. I
Speaker 5: wanted to circle back to you for path into running
Speaker 5: where I've heard the story of that you became a
Speaker 5: good runner because you used to run to school?
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Run run? We never, like I said, we really never
Speaker 4: had a car. So any school I had to go to.
Speaker 4: I from elementary, middle school, and even high school, I
Speaker 4: walked every day. And I remember in middle school, you know,
Speaker 4: you walk in as a teenager you want to sleep in,
Speaker 4: so you realize, oh, well, like I can sleep it's
Speaker 4: been more, but I'm gonna have to run. And then
Speaker 4: it got to the point where I started playing the cello,
Speaker 4: which was dumb because you have to bring the cello
Speaker 4: back home every day otherwise the teacher would know you're
Speaker 4: not practicing and would give you a bad grade. So
Speaker 4: literally I would have to bring this big cello home
Speaker 4: every day and then take it back the next day
Speaker 4: just for the sake of showing her I was practicing
Speaker 4: even though I wasn't, you know, And if that thing
Speaker 4: is heavy, and I would like literally be running with
Speaker 4: this huge cello the size of me because I'm in
Speaker 4: middle school. And it's funny because you know, that's essentially
Speaker 4: what my workouts became. So like when I was running
Speaker 4: to school, I would be like, Okay, you're gonna walk
Speaker 4: one block and then you're gonna sprint the next block.
Speaker 4: You're gonna walk the next block, like it was like
Speaker 4: a fart lick where you run walk, run walk. That
Speaker 4: is literally I still do these workouts for track to
Speaker 4: this day. And then carrying the bobs are carrying the
Speaker 4: cello was like my bobsled stuff, like when I went
Speaker 4: to the or to Bob's led. We haven't talked about
Speaker 4: it yet, but I'm one of the few athletes to
Speaker 4: compete in the summer and win our Olympics. We have
Speaker 4: to cherry heavy, heavy equipment like massive tools, toolboxes, and
Speaker 4: we're running and we're in the snow, and it's like
Speaker 4: that was my childhood. So it was funny because when
Speaker 4: I first went to Bob's led, they were like, ooh,
Speaker 4: who's this track girl, Like this summer olympian that has
Speaker 4: all these followers. You know, she's on all these magazines
Speaker 4: and models. She's not going to be up for this
Speaker 4: blue collar sport. Like they were dogging me out and
Speaker 4: they had no clue. And then when I went out there,
Speaker 4: I became the hardest worker on that team, and the
Speaker 4: coaches were like what in the hell, like they didn't
Speaker 4: understand it, and I was like, I grew up in Iowa.
Speaker 4: I walked to school, ran to school every day in
Speaker 4: snow and rain, Like I'm that when your grandma says
Speaker 4: I used to walk and run in school, and that's me,
Speaker 4: So back off, because I'm about to show you how
Speaker 4: to work.
Speaker 3: That's great, man, Daron.
Speaker 5: I got to say, Man, I'm loving how you've really
Speaker 5: made your self at home in the big city.
Speaker 4: I'm curious, how are you getting around? You a subway guy,
Speaker 4: cab uber.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you're asked, Donni.
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Speaker 2: around in New Jersey, don't know where to go, I'm
Speaker 2: telling you go check out All American Forward here in Jersey.
Speaker 2: They're gonna take real good care of you.
Speaker 5: When we come back, you'll hear more of this inspiring
Speaker 5: comeback story.
Speaker 2: I want to get into, Like, whenever I think of
Speaker 2: people's like success stories and when they start to really accelerate,
Speaker 2: I always think of, like, what's the like the.
Speaker 3: Parallel journey going on in their inner world.
Speaker 2: So what was it like at LSU when you're taking
Speaker 2: off in your career is just skyrocketing?
Speaker 3: Like, was it the pressure a lot?
Speaker 2: Was the success something that was like tough to handle
Speaker 2: in process? I'm sure you got a lot of attention.
Speaker 2: Like what was it like coping with so much success?
Speaker 4: Well, actually, that's not my experience at LSU. So uh
Speaker 4: I remember, uh I went so in high school. I
Speaker 4: was the best best athlete in Iowa, the state of Iowa.
Speaker 4: But that's a small state and it's not known for
Speaker 4: track and field. And I remember, like I was getting
Speaker 4: letters from all over the country to get recruited, and
Speaker 4: you know, I could have had my pick of the litter,
Speaker 4: but the promise because I was coming from Iowa. We
Speaker 4: ran lower kurdles at the time, So even though I
Speaker 4: had the fast time in the country, it had it
Speaker 4: asterisk by my name. So some schools didn't want to
Speaker 4: recruit me, but like a lot of them did. And
Speaker 4: I knew I had to get a starship because, like
Speaker 4: I said, my family's poor. I had no way to
Speaker 4: afford college. So I just was trucking it and then
Speaker 4: LSU called. And so if anybody doesn't know anything about
Speaker 4: drive and field. Let me school you. Elis was like
Speaker 4: the duke basketball. They have like the most NCAA titles
Speaker 4: in the history. I like, I think it goes back
Speaker 4: between them in Arkansas, but like they're the boss. Like
Speaker 4: they won thirteen in a row of NCAA titles. And
Speaker 4: if you wanted to be an Olympian or pro athlete,
Speaker 4: you knew going to LSU was going to increase your chances.
Speaker 4: So it was hard for me because I actually had
Speaker 4: an academic scholarship to go to THEI like Iowa State University,
Speaker 4: and I turned it down to accept this LSU scholarship.
Speaker 4: And I remember my track coach everybody was like, You're
Speaker 4: making the biggest mistake, Like LSU's not really known for academics.
Speaker 4: But I was like, I knew how strong they were
Speaker 4: in track, you know, and I knew that if I
Speaker 4: had any shot of you know, continuing, I had to
Speaker 4: go to LSU. And so they recruited me. And so
Speaker 4: when I go down there, I'm excited, you know, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 4: like they want me. They're the best program. So I
Speaker 4: get there. Day one, I show up, they have signed
Speaker 4: three other freshman hurdlers. So I knew that one of
Speaker 4: us was gonna get cut by mid season. Like that's
Speaker 4: how that they're They're tough. They don't care, you know,
Speaker 4: they care, but they don't care, you know, and they
Speaker 4: make you work for it. And so it was a
Speaker 4: really rough freshman year for me because I had the
Speaker 4: culture change. You know, I would used to four different seasons,
Speaker 4: and in Louisiana they have hot and not not really
Speaker 4: that hot. So the snow, snow, this humidity was killing me.
Speaker 4: It was it was making me have asthma attacks.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: It was a really hard adjustment for me. You know,
Speaker 4: I went from living in a predominantly white area to
Speaker 4: now we in the South. Baby, you know, we're listening
Speaker 4: to trap music. I don't even know what that was, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, anything from like the food. The only food
Speaker 4: the seafood I had ever had was like red lobster.
Speaker 4: And if you have red lobster in Louisiana, they that's
Speaker 4: disgusting to them. That's like that's like so that's like
Speaker 4: a sin to have red lobster. You know, I mean
Speaker 4: everything like from spelled thing go tigers, but it's like yeoh,
Speaker 4: it's like spelled g E a u X, Like what
Speaker 4: is that like this cage in French. It was really hard,
Speaker 4: and you know, and to keep your scholarship and to
Speaker 4: know that if you don't run fast enough, you will
Speaker 4: now not be able to afford college because my mom
Speaker 4: had no money. So I just strucked it. And my
Speaker 4: freshman year I really had a you know, it wasn't outstanding,
Speaker 4: but I beat the senior on the team that year,
Speaker 4: and then I became the first one for LSU in
Speaker 4: the history of LSU to make a final as a
Speaker 4: freshman and earn my first All American. And you know,
Speaker 4: I was solid for LSU. But when you're saying, oh,
Speaker 4: were you a rock star? No, because the rock stars
Speaker 4: I was on the team with were Muna Lee and
Speaker 4: she literally became an Olympian still in college. You know,
Speaker 4: like I say, it was good, but like we had
Speaker 4: people just crushing it, and I won an NCAA title
Speaker 4: individual I think my junior year. But I mean I
Speaker 4: was in the mix. But would I consider myself a
Speaker 4: rock star?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Like did they peg me ever to be able to
Speaker 4: be good enough to go pro or make it all
Speaker 4: of the team. No. So I really didn't start to
Speaker 4: shine until after I was done with LSU. I was good.
Speaker 4: Don't like people knew my name, but I wasn't like
Speaker 4: the staple piece of LSU for sure. I was you know,
Speaker 4: I was good. I helped them win championships. We won
Speaker 4: three out of the four years I was there. Of
Speaker 4: the team title. You know, my coach knew he could
Speaker 4: just rely on me, throw me in wherever he needed me.
Speaker 4: But I was not the rock star on that team.
Speaker 2: I can definitely, I can definitely relate my college experience.
Speaker 2: I got in as a freshman and I was a
Speaker 2: I played defense in high school and they moved me
Speaker 2: to receiver when I got there.
Speaker 3: But they already had other receivers.
Speaker 2: In my freshman class coming in and guys they had
Speaker 2: in mind. So I'm just kind of like in the
Speaker 2: back of the pack and playing like some special teams
Speaker 2: and whatnot.
Speaker 3: But it never was really a dominant force in college
Speaker 3: my whole career.
Speaker 2: I was like always been a late bloomer from my
Speaker 2: body to football to you know, I didn't really really
Speaker 2: think i'd go.
Speaker 3: To the league.
Speaker 2: I was big and ran a fast forty so that's
Speaker 2: kind of how I snuck in.
Speaker 3: The back of the draft.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, I mean, but I feel like having
Speaker 2: that success and what not be delayed was like honestly
Speaker 2: looking back, like better for me, Like I mean, I
Speaker 2: still had my my double addiction life, but just looking
Speaker 2: at the football perspective of it, like I feel like
Speaker 2: a lot of people can peak too soon, but there's
Speaker 2: not a lot of people that continue to get better
Speaker 2: throughout the process, throughout the journey, like long term, and
Speaker 2: I feel like that delayed gratification and delayed success and
Speaker 2: adoration can pay off for you.
Speaker 3: A lot of people don't want to hear that, though.
Speaker 4: No they don't. They want their kids to be rock
Speaker 4: stars in college and that I exactly had exactly what
Speaker 4: you're saying, Like I I mean, I was a world
Speaker 4: champion even in my like thirty eight, Like that's insane
Speaker 4: as a pro athlete. So yeah, I really, you know,
Speaker 4: like I went to my first Olympic trials after I
Speaker 4: graduated from college and I wasn't even top eight in
Speaker 4: the US, and like I thought that that was it,
Speaker 4: and my coach was like, I'll see you at practice
Speaker 4: next week, and we just went to work. And my
Speaker 4: first year pro I was like fifth through eighth in
Speaker 4: every race. My second year pro, I was third through fifth,
Speaker 4: my third year pro Top three, and then the year
Speaker 4: of trying to make my first Olympics out of college,
Speaker 4: I was not only the fastest American, not only the
Speaker 4: person that almost broke the Olympic trials record, I was
Speaker 4: the fastest runner in the world. So for me not
Speaker 4: having ever won an individual outdoor NCAA title in my event,
Speaker 4: to be now in the best in the world and
Speaker 4: almost the best in history. Yeah, Like my peak wasn't
Speaker 4: in college for sure. How did you handle that once
Speaker 4: you were the best?
Speaker 5: What was your mindset?
Speaker 3: Was it? Like?
Speaker 5: Was your worthiness the self work dialed in and ready
Speaker 5: to receive that recognition?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I never So I don't try to
Speaker 4: put too much emphasis on track or this and that,
Speaker 4: because obviously my identity comes with my relationship with Christ.
Speaker 4: Like I'm a strong Christ. That's my identity more than anything,
Speaker 4: you know. I love track and field, But it doesn't
Speaker 4: make or break me if I had to give it
Speaker 4: up tomorrow, Like I'm constantly praying about that. Okay, God,
Speaker 4: if this is not what you want me to do anymore, Like,
Speaker 4: let me know, make it clear. So my self worth
Speaker 4: wasn't defined by being number one, just like it wasn't
Speaker 4: defined by being not number one. Like I felt like
Speaker 4: I was the same person when I was getting eighth
Speaker 4: place in every race, as the same person when I
Speaker 4: was like, oh wait, you're giving me my own hotel
Speaker 4: room by myself because I'm the number one hurdle in
Speaker 4: the world, Like this is crazy. Like I was the
Speaker 4: same the terman, like let's do work. And even when
Speaker 4: I started, you know, because my this was how much
Speaker 4: State thought I was not going to be an Olympian
Speaker 4: is I could not even get a contract out of college.
Speaker 4: So like all the people I competed against the college
Speaker 4: were signing Nike deals Adidas like they were going pro
Speaker 4: and no one would pick me up. And so instead
Speaker 4: I worked at a gym, I worked at home depot,
Speaker 4: I drove a little scooter, you know. I kept my
Speaker 4: AC like pretty much off in Louisiana, which is insane, like,
Speaker 4: you know, ninety one hundred degrees, no AC, trying to
Speaker 4: save money, you know, just hustling and uh you know.
Speaker 4: So then when I finally got my big shoe deal,
Speaker 4: I'm the same person. I'm like, I just mentality is
Speaker 4: like you grew up pro poor, Like just don't even
Speaker 4: think about the money, so like I just put the
Speaker 4: money away, like invest it, save it, and I just
Speaker 4: stayed on the grind, you know, just keep the same mentality.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to ever become comfortable because I feel
Speaker 4: like I used that in my running, in my competitions.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people could have your same
Speaker 5: story growing up, and you turn it into more of
Speaker 5: the victim mindset and really used that story to work
Speaker 5: against them. And you It's like your childhood and everything
Speaker 5: you went through got you to where you are today.
Speaker 5: And I just want to bring back the importance of
Speaker 5: what you mentioned is your faith, because what you were
Speaker 5: saying was you weren't your identity, wasn't this track star?
Speaker 5: And for me that hit home because my identity was baseball,
Speaker 5: and when baseball was stripped for me from injury, that's
Speaker 5: what led me down the path of addiction. I had
Speaker 5: have had seven surgeries on my left knee and had
Speaker 5: a big traumatic surgery, and for a while I did
Speaker 5: blame it on that and the.
Speaker 4: Doctor and being overprescribed pills.
Speaker 5: But when I got to the root of it, which
Speaker 5: was in rehab, when I just was finally willing to
Speaker 5: get help, the room of my My addiction was the
Speaker 5: loss of the purpose because I didn't know who I was.
Speaker 5: There was nothing bigger than baseball for me, and I
Speaker 5: got all my validation through that. So as that was
Speaker 5: stripped from me, it literally almost killed me. Yeah, i'd
Speaker 5: definitely see that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't want to sit up here and
Speaker 4: act like I haven't struggled with mental health and problems
Speaker 4: as I have. There were seasons where I had to
Speaker 4: the sidle thoughts and stuff when you know, I was
Speaker 4: getting criticized in front of millions because you know, I
Speaker 4: went to my first Olympics and you know, like I said,
Speaker 4: I was number one hurdler in the world, and everybody's like,
Speaker 4: who is this girl? She came out of nowhere. You know,
Speaker 4: she's so talented, you know. And I went to the
Speaker 4: my first Olympic Games in Beijing and I was just locked.
Speaker 4: You know, focus is ever running. Like I remember the
Speaker 4: semi final race, I actually slowed down and I still
Speaker 4: set a pbuh because I wanted to save it for
Speaker 4: the fine. And in the finals, I was winning the
Speaker 4: race by a tremendous lead. I was on pace to
Speaker 4: break the Olympic record and I hit the ninth hurdle
Speaker 4: and literally gold medal was just ripped from my hand.
Speaker 4: And not only that, when I crossed the line, I
Speaker 4: saw that I hit that hurdle so bad. I didn't
Speaker 4: even get top three. And I just remember just crumbling
Speaker 4: to the track and just you know, pounding the track.
Speaker 4: And obviously I'm Christian, but I was pussing. I was like, ugh,
Speaker 4: you know, like I was pissed, you know, and I
Speaker 4: just started crying. I just felt like that my insides
Speaker 4: had got ripped out, and I just remember God whispered
Speaker 4: to me. He was just like, yeah, but you're here
Speaker 4: on the Olympic track, and four years ago you were
Speaker 4: sitting at home crying because you didn't make the Olympic team.
Speaker 4: And so from that point on, I just realized that
Speaker 4: my failures I need to use them to motivate, you know.
Speaker 4: And that's essentially what I did. Like growing up poverty,
Speaker 4: I used poverty to just use it for you know, competing,
Speaker 4: and then when I, you know, wasn't the best collegiate athlete,
Speaker 4: I use that to get a contract. When I didn't
Speaker 4: get a contract, it's like I still fought and then
Speaker 4: to make my first Olympic team. And then move the
Speaker 4: Olympic medal in front of millions. I use that to
Speaker 4: make another Olympic team because that time I had fine
Speaker 4: surgery before, so everybody's like, there's no way she's bouncing
Speaker 4: back from this. Her career is over. And then just
Speaker 4: to keep going. I got fourth at that Olympics, and
Speaker 4: I was super frustrated and I was just like, man, like,
Speaker 4: I feel like I'm punching the wall here, like I'm
Speaker 4: so close to the Olympic medal and I keep coming
Speaker 4: up short. People are teasing me. They're like, Lolo can't
Speaker 4: win in anything, like the fact that I hit a
Speaker 4: hurdle and I never hit a hurdle, and I'd become
Speaker 4: known as the girl that always hits hurdles. That was heavy,
Speaker 4: heavy on me to always get I'd be like, let's
Speaker 4: say it was on Twitter or x now and I'd
Speaker 4: make a joke about a basketball game and people were like,
Speaker 4: shut up, girl, you can't even like you can't even
Speaker 4: get over a hurdle. And they pull up the picture
Speaker 4: of me hitting and hurd aout the Olympics and use
Speaker 4: it to tease me, and all that could have broke
Speaker 4: me down, and instead I took that and I literally
Speaker 4: dumped it into a whole new sport and became one
Speaker 4: of the few people to make a summer and Winter Olympics.
Speaker 4: So I've always one of my favorite things I've always
Speaker 4: told people is failures are your biggest motivators in life.
Speaker 4: If you use them, if they do not break you,
Speaker 4: they can be your biggest way out of the situation
Speaker 4: as fuel for the fire. Like it fills your gas
Speaker 4: tank with just motivation to just go. So if anybody
Speaker 4: can get anything out of this top today is That's
Speaker 4: what I would tell them, Like, when a set back happens,
Speaker 4: when a failure happens, don't let it break you. Instead,
Speaker 4: use that So just fuel your fire to whatever goal
Speaker 4: you're trying to achieve.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, that's fire, right, Derek.
Speaker 2: My favorite quote is Winston Churchill. Success is moving from
Speaker 2: failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Speaker 3: Because there's plenty of.
Speaker 2: Parts in your story where you could have just folded
Speaker 2: up or been like, man, this is tough, like from
Speaker 2: eight to thirty eight, and it's like no like over time,
Speaker 2: like through these failures, through these circumstances, you've built the
Speaker 2: character to be able to not only push through those circumstances,
Speaker 2: but to be able to see them through a new lens,
Speaker 2: seeing with a new perspective, and actually see them as
Speaker 2: valuable to help you go to a new level, help
Speaker 2: you continue to write your story. And people need to
Speaker 2: hear that shit, because as human beings, we don't want discomfort.
Speaker 2: We don't want to be down on the track pounding
Speaker 2: the ground. That's not how we write our story. We
Speaker 2: want that straight path. But without those moments, you're not
Speaker 2: here today continuing to share your story and also doing
Speaker 2: that free from people's opinions from past performances. Like you
Speaker 2: are who you are, and you have your identity and
Speaker 2: something greater and you epitomize everything that this show is about.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate you coming on here and spend some
Speaker 2: time with us.
Speaker 4: What thank you? And I just want to say, like
Speaker 4: what really taught me to be the amazing runner I am?
Speaker 4: But also just how to just take leaps and strides
Speaker 4: in life? So as a runner or you feel this
Speaker 4: too as an athlete, you guys are both athletes. There's
Speaker 4: always that part of the workout where it's extremely tough,
Speaker 4: like you're have my hard workout, your lungs are burning,
Speaker 4: they're about to explode through your chests. Your legs are heavy,
Speaker 4: fell app you can feel the lactic acid just singing
Speaker 4: you like beats. Well, I taught myself when I have
Speaker 4: those moments and a hard workout, to push through that,
Speaker 4: relax through that, enjoy, embrace the pain, and make it
Speaker 4: to the finish line. I don't break, I don't quit.
Speaker 4: I don't give up. And what I found is it
Speaker 4: hurts just as hard to give up as it is
Speaker 4: to push through. So like what say my coach has
Speaker 4: me on repeat six hundred or repeat three hundreds or
Speaker 4: two hundreds. If I'm like, you know what, Coach, I
Speaker 4: can't do this and I back off, I'm still gonna
Speaker 4: be in pain for about five minutes. If I push through, relax, breathe,
Speaker 4: focus on my breathing, it's the same amount of pain,
Speaker 4: it's just the control pain, and now I get that
Speaker 4: high of actually finishing my goal. And so what I
Speaker 4: try to tell people in life is when you hit
Speaker 4: that moment of light where you feel like, oh everything
Speaker 4: is coming at you, it's too hard. You can't push through.
Speaker 4: If you give up, it's not going to take away
Speaker 4: the pain immediately. It's literally it's just a different type
Speaker 4: of pain. So just fight through, get to the finish line,
Speaker 4: and I promise you that how you get from not
Speaker 4: being stopped dead in your tracks, it's just worth it.
Speaker 4: And that's when you really start living. That's when you
Speaker 4: really start running, Like when you're running a race and
Speaker 4: you get through it, or if you're competing or being
Speaker 4: an athlete mode and you're just nah, I'm getting through this.
Speaker 4: You literally you start to live and it's awesome. And
Speaker 4: I now I look forward to those hard moments in
Speaker 4: the practice where I know it's going to try to
Speaker 4: break me. I'm like, you're not gonna break me. You're
Speaker 4: not gonna break me. I love that. I love that
Speaker 4: moment in practice, and I love that moment in life
Speaker 4: because that makes breaks people.
Speaker 5: Of course, no one you're saying here. One thing I
Speaker 5: wanted to circle back to was gratitude because it sounds like, well,
Speaker 5: a couple things that I think the listeners can take
Speaker 5: away that you've shared. What is faith like believing in
Speaker 5: something greater than you, whatever you choose to call it,
Speaker 5: but you got to I would hope you would know
Speaker 5: there's something out there, you know, running the show, and
Speaker 5: it's definitely not us. But then also the gratitude and
Speaker 5: how I believe gratitude changes the way we see the world.
Speaker 5: And the last thing to piggyback on what you were
Speaker 5: saying is how the most self confident and the people
Speaker 5: that are filled with the most self worth are the
Speaker 5: ones that keep the promises they make to themselves. So
Speaker 5: when you say you're going to do something and you
Speaker 5: don't do it residue of breaking those promises, I mean,
Speaker 5: it makes us so vulnerable to the internal noise, the
Speaker 5: not enough story that so many of us have, but
Speaker 5: then all the external noise, and especially as an athlete,
Speaker 5: and then if you're dealing with social media and all
Speaker 5: the garbage and all the trolls on there, when we
Speaker 5: are keeping the promises we make to ourselves, we really
Speaker 5: become unshakable, especially with that faith. And that's not to
Speaker 5: say we're not going to be phased by it, but
Speaker 5: I don't think it hijacks us as much as it
Speaker 5: would if we didn't have a faith of practice of
Speaker 5: gratitude and we were following.
Speaker 4: Through on the things we said we were going to do.
Speaker 4: But I also even think if you don't make promises
Speaker 4: to yourself, because I'm not a very organized person, and
Speaker 4: I don't think I have promises to myself, but I
Speaker 4: will say that I just don't want to be stopped,
Speaker 4: and I don't I don't want to be stopped by myself,
Speaker 4: you know, like I don't want to put limits on myself,
Speaker 4: and you know, like I want to I want to
Speaker 4: experience life to its fulists and you never experience life
Speaker 4: more than you come against an obstacle and you have
Speaker 4: that fork in the road type moment. And so much
Speaker 4: of society now is just like, hey, take the easy route,
Speaker 4: take the less painful route, because you really feel like
Speaker 4: it's the that like it's gonna immediately take away your pain,
Speaker 4: but it doesn't. Like example, there's been so many times
Speaker 4: I talked to people and they're like, I wish I
Speaker 4: would have kept playing sports, but like I wanted to
Speaker 4: go out and party because they thought that that immediate
Speaker 4: gratification was going to be better, and at that time
Speaker 4: it did, but then now they're ten years later and
Speaker 4: they regret that decision. So it's like, when you reach
Speaker 4: that hard point in life, if you think backing off
Speaker 4: is gonna make it the pain go away, is gonna
Speaker 4: make it easier. It doesn't because you might be thinking
Speaker 4: about that same decision ten years from now, So you
Speaker 4: might as well buckle down, do a work push through,
Speaker 4: and just keep taking another step to get to that
Speaker 4: finish line. That's all I would tell someone is just
Speaker 4: when you hit that moment where it wants to break you,
Speaker 4: instead of be like, ah, I don't want this to
Speaker 4: be happened to me, Like you know what, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: show you. I'm gonna shine bright right now, and I
Speaker 4: guarantee you're gonna come alive.
Speaker 2: Hey, you heard her. I ain't gonna try to follow
Speaker 2: that up. So appreciate you, guys. Appreciate everybody tuning into
Speaker 2: Comeback Stories for another episode. Find us anywhere you listen
Speaker 2: to your podcast, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, We're on Inflection
Speaker 2: Network YouTube.
Speaker 3: Thank you Lolo again and we'll see you guys later.
Speaker 4: Hi, guys, thank you, hello peace.
Speaker 1: Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
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