She went on to win gold at the 2008 World Athletics Final, beating the newly crowned Olympic champion Dawn Harper with a time of 12.56.

[7][8] Outside of the Olympics, Jones has also appeared on many reality TV shows, such as Dancing with the Stars, Celebrity Big Brother, The Challenge, and Name That Tune.

During the summer when day camps were offered at the church, Jones would wake up early to avoid being teased by other kids if they found out she was living in the basement.

[11] Jones stayed with the Caldwells after her senior year at Roosevelt, while she attended college, trained and worked part-time at the Iowa Bakery Cafe, a local coffee shop.

During her junior and senior years, she lived with the family of medical writing consultant Marilyn K. Hauk and her then-husband, former Des Moines Register assistant managing editor Randy Essex.

They became part of a community that nurtured her, which included teachers at Roosevelt High School who made sure that she put together the right classes to be ready for college, an orthodontist who reduced the cost of her braces and an attorney who handled paperwork pro bono to assure she was covered by health insurance.

[11] She was named Gatorade Midwest Athlete of the Year and set a record at the Iowa state track meet with a mark of 13.40 seconds for the 100-meter hurdles.

Jones' financial situation also was still a concern, forcing her to choose to focus on track and not earning a steady paycheck, or using her economics degree to get a regular job.

To save money, Jones would leave the air conditioner off, which meant suffering through the hot Louisiana summer days.

She also held several different part-time jobs after college, including working at Home Depot, waiting tables, and a personal trainer at a gym.

At the 2006 World Athletics Final, she finished sixth in the 100 m hurdles and fifth in the 100 m. She also did well on the European circuit, winning a meet in Ostrava.

On the summer track circuit, Jones won meets at Rethimno and Heusden along with second-place finishes at Doha, Sheffield, and Monaco.

Jones opened the 2008 outdoor season with a first-place finish at the LSU Alumni Gold meet in Baton Rouge, setting a stadium record in the process.

In the final, she was pulling away from the pack when she clipped the 9th hurdle (of 10) and stumbled, breaking stride to drop her back to a 7th-place finish.

[15] According to the SEC-sponsored, ESPN Films' documentary Lolo[16] about Jones' life (and her personal telling of the story during it), the "clipping" of the ninth hurdle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was attributed to a spinal problem.

The doctor who treated her said that the problem was so bad that he would examine her feet and ask which toe of which foot he was touching and she told him that she couldn't feel anything.

[16] Jones began the 2009 indoor season in Europe, scoring victories in the 60 m hurdles with world-leading times of 7.82 seconds in Karlsruhe and Birmingham.

A hamstring injury at her hometown meet, the Drake Relays, caused her to miss a month's worth of training but she returned in time for the outdoor national championships.

[18] She did not repeat her indoor success, however, as her arms collided with Michelle Perry in the semi-finals and fell, missing out on the opportunity to compete at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

[19] Vowing to salvage her season, she returned to Europe to compete on the major World Athletics Tour meets, but she only finished seventh and eighth in Oslo and Lausanne.

[20] She returned to form in Rethymno, beating Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Damu Cherry with a world-leading time of 12.47 seconds.

[21] She faced strong competition on the European circuit: Jones took third at the London Grand Prix behind Sally McLellan and Perdita Felicien,[22] and a run of 12.61 seconds was only enough for third again at Herculis.

[25] Jones defended her 60m hurdles Indoor World Title in Doha after finishing with a time of 7.72, a new American record.

After wins in Doha,[26] Oslo,[27] New York[28][29] and Monaco,[30] going into the last Diamond League race, Jones was tied at the top of the standings with Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.

[42] Jones was one of three track and field Olympians (along with Tianna Madison and Hyleas Fountain) invited to the U.S. women's bobsled push championship by coach Todd Hays.

[71][72] In the same year, she hosted the two-part reunion show for The Challenge: War of the Worlds alongside WWE pro wrestler Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.

[75] On August 4, 2012, Jones was criticized by Jeré Longman of The New York Times: "This [media attention paid to her] was based not on achievement but on her exotic beauty and on a sad and cynical marketing campaign.

"[76] Janice Forsyth, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies[77] at the University of Western Ontario, compared her to tennis' Anna Kournikova,[76] who had never won a WTA Tour singles tournament but became well known after appearing in numerous photo shoots and product advertisements.

[78] The selection of Jones to the U.S. 2014 Winter Olympics bobsled team was criticized by some American bobsledders as happening due to her fame.

[79] The United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation CEO Darrin Steele defended the selection: "I haven't heard anyone making the argument about Lolo not being a better athlete right now, a better brakeman for the team.