Lolo Jones and Tianna Madison Named to US Bobsled Team

Jamaicans did it in the 80\'s.

Now I remember Allyn Condon from Great Britain. He was part of some 4x100 Team GB relays at Olympics, European Champs or Commonwhealth Games. As well he was part of GB Bobsled team IIRC.

And I saw last year at Panamerican Games a member of Jamaican 4x100 relay that also was part of Jamaican Bobsled team. I don\'t remember his name.

This despite Lolo Jones not being close to the leaders at least in the first two tries in the push weeks back.

and remember Dallas Robinson? He is among the men who made the team:

http://espn.go.com/olympics/bobsled/story/_/id/8549539/lolo-jones-named-us-bobsled-team

No male track athletes invited or considered? Doc Patton is at the tail end of his sprint career. Maybe David Oliver. And there are tons of football players. They should give it a try. The men's team was mentioned in the last paragraph and there weren't any recognizable names. They've been much more successful.

The media hype is already picking up steam. Looks like results and actual accomplishments will again take a backseat to marketability and a pretty face. Purely a publicity stunt.

My concerns are long-term injuries. However, Lolo is not a threat to win a medal in the 100m H in Rio.

look, good for her, but let's see how she deals with falling out of the sled in the start, or turning over at 60 mph and sliding on her head for 200 meters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ64u5fVKIQ

putting your life into the hands of someone else is not a natural thing for a track athlete

Well, seeing Lolo's history at the Oly's - let's just hope she doesn't trip and fall on her face just trying to get into the sled.

agip wrote:

look, good for her, but let's see how she deals with falling out of the sled in the start, or turning over at 60 mph and sliding on her head for 200 meters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ64u5fVKIQ

putting your life into the hands of someone else is not a natural thing for a track athlete

That is Buckingham Palace, mon. In order to live there you have to marry the queen of England

In high school in South Dakota (early 2000), there were two shot-putters who weighed well above 250 lbs, and could also run the 100 in under 10.8 seconds. I remember talking to both of them and saying they may not make the olympics in shot-put (one guy, Tyg Long was number 1 in the country for high schoolers at the time), but they would have a hell of a chance in bobsled.

So am I incorrect to think that weight would be advantageous? Isn't Lolo's weight a little low, or is there a rule that states that all laden sleds shall weigh the same?

wejo wrote:

Any sprinters chime in here. Would doing bobsled training get in the way much of track training in the offseason? Lolo is great indoors so if she skips indoors I can see that being a bit of a problem.

It depends on what else they're doing. Remember first of all that sprinters do base training just like distance runners do, and like distance running, its the conditioning built up during base that allows the much faster stuff later.

High level sprint training this days has a large amount of power work (pulling sleds, sprinting steep hills), weights, and glycolytic capacity (300s at 80-90% speed) and many programs these days are doing two days of power and 2 days of capacity. For example, Asafa Powell pulls sleds with 50 pounds on grass twice a week for something like 6 months of the season.

Jones and Madison will get a large amount of power development (likely more than they've had before) as part of bobsled training. If they supplement with the longer stuff, they will be fine--for sprints--but might not be competition ready until late in the season.

The catch for Lolo is whether she will can get in enough technique work for hurdles in addition to the glycolytic capcity work and the power work for bobsled without overtraining.

Lolo is still being coached by Dennis Shaver who is clearly one of the best in the business and knows all of this and more. But it will be tougher for Lolo given the hurdles technique work required.

JMartin wrote:

No male track athletes invited or considered? Doc Patton is at the tail end of his sprint career. Maybe David Oliver. And there are tons of football players. They should give it a try. The men's team was mentioned in the last paragraph and there weren't any recognizable names. They've been much more successful.

The media hype is already picking up steam. Looks like results and actual accomplishments will again take a backseat to marketability and a pretty face. Purely a publicity stunt.

Langdon was a sprinter/jumper at Northeastern. 10.8 probably at best. Nothing crazy fast but a very strong powerful sprinter with weight on his side. I wouldn't be surprised if he got faster after college because injuries def slowed him down in college.

Will Los Angeles Country T&F athletes win 18 Medals at 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow ? More or Less.

LOLO has more twitter followers than Allyson, Sanya, Tianna, Dawn and Carmalita put together.

Thats nuts for someone who has never won a medal at an outdoor WC or OG.

And honestly, I think Allyson and Deedee are both hotter than Lolo.

coach d wrote:

High level sprint training this days has a large amount of power work (pulling sleds, sprinting steep hills), weights, and glycolytic capacity (300s at 80-90% speed) and many programs these days are doing two days of power and 2 days of capacity. For example, Asafa Powell pulls sleds with 50 pounds on grass twice a week for something like 6 months of the season.

Jones and Madison will get a large amount of power development (likely more than they've had before) as part of bobsled training. If they supplement with the longer stuff, they will be fine--for sprints--but might not be competition ready until late in the season.

Seconded.

Good bobsled pushers are more like shotputters or guys fast over 40m than 100m types. Bodyweight tends to help, so if they end up gaining more muscle mass than desired for track it could be a problem.

There is at least one former track athlete on the men's team. Drbal was a decathlete turned javelin thrower at UCLA.

Bobsledding is most definitely not my sport, but I do know that there are both minimum and maximum weight for sleds. It's not like they can just dump the Ravens offensive line in there. It would appear that power wins.

Weren't Herschel Walker & Willie Gault on national bobsled team in 1980's????

Some people question Lolo because of her push time trial, but she is one of the strongest women in the field so with more people in the sled she is probably a good choice. I am surprised they did not take Fountain though, she is fairly fast and strong.

InWyo wrote:

In high school in South Dakota (early 2000), there were two shot-putters who weighed well above 250 lbs, and could also run the 100 in under 10.8 seconds. I remember talking to both of them and saying they may not make the olympics in shot-put (one guy, Tyg Long was number 1 in the country for high schoolers at the time), but they would have a hell of a chance in bobsled.

So am I incorrect to think that weight would be advantageous? Isn't Lolo's weight a little low, or is there a rule that states that all laden sleds shall weigh the same?

That much weight has to be a detriment. Obviously you need someone strong and quick at the start, but once you are in the bobsled, that weight would work to your disadvantage.