Lolo Jones Fans Scold Olympian for Retaliating Against Critic
When Lolo Jones retaliated against one critic by posting the person's personal photo on her Twitter as a form of revenge for negative comments, the Olympian's followers did not approve.
During Super Bowl 50, the 33-year-old Christian hurdler posted an image of herself during a race and jokingly wrote the caption, "when they say ribs are ready before Super Bowl starts"
A critic who caught wind of the image decided to respond, "well we know you were the last to get yours then."
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Jones decided to react to the message by writing, "When haters try to discourage you, Keep working. Victories don't come without failures along the way."
However, she didn't stop there. The athlete with over 400,000 Twitter followers chose to take things one step further by posting an image of the critic to her social media page.
She proceeded to blast the image by writing, "My face when I wake up in the morning with no makeup on... (y'all didn't think I would let her off that easy huh)."
However, a number of Jones' followers did not approve of her retaliation.
"You are an Olympian Lolo," one person wrote. "Do you really need to do this? C'mon!"
Another referenced Luke 6:29 by telling Jones, "Lolo, you could've turned the other cheek...why let it get to you?"
The move may have caused Jones to lose some fans.
"You were one of my favorite athletes and I looked up to you a lot," one person wrote. "But I just lost so much respect for you."
While it is unclear why Jones chose to single out the critic, she has admitted to struggling with feelings of defeat after struggling with racing and injuries in recent years. Last year Jones suffered from a torn hip labrum, which resulted in her third major surgery in recent years, and she admitted to feeling defeated.
"It was the first time in my career that I thought, I don't know if I can try this again. Mentally, I was breaking down," she told ESPN last year. "I love running and had a desire to go for Rio in 2016, but the setback was mentally draining. It messed with my confidence."
Although Jones made a name for herself after winning three NCAA titles, she has struggled to earn an Olympic medal in her appearances at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics. While she has yet to earn a medal for the Olympic games, where she competed for hurdling and bobsledding, Jones believes she is better off for the experience after coming up short and being publicly ridiculed.
"It proved to me how mentally tough I am, that I could pour my heart into a sport in the face of failure. This helps going into Rio, where people are saying, 'She's been injured, she's too old, she should throw in the towel,'" Jones told ESPN . "I have already faced failure. You've got to continue to pursue your dreams even when it hurts. It's not how you start, but how you finish."
