Olympian Lolo Jones: Being open about my virginity 'was a mistake'

Olympian Lolo Jones made headlines in 2012 when she revealed her virginity.

"It's just something, a gift that I want to give to my husband," she noted at the time. "But please understand this journey has been hard. If there's virgins out there, I just want to let them know it's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage."

In other words, resisting temptation: "I've been tempted. I've had guys tell me, they're like, 'Hey you know if you have sex it will help you run faster,'" Jones said then before sharing her typical response. "If you marry me, then yeah."

'Mistake'

But Jones — who's competed as a hurdler and bobsledder — told comedian Kevin Hart in a recent interview that her openness about saving sex for marriage "was a mistake."

"That killed all my dates after that," the 37-year-old said regarding her virginity being public knowledge. "Like didn't even have a chance. Before, at least I had a chance. Before, I'd like, tiptoe. 'OK, when's a good time to tell him? Do I wait until he sees my personality a little bit? Or do I just drop the bomb?'"

However, Hart had a positive reaction to Jones' virginity: "It's rare to see that in this day and age. I mean, I respect it. I think it's dope."

Jones also noted that "having sex actually helps you as an athlete, a female athlete," saying that it's beneficial for hormones and increases testosterone. "So I'm running at a disadvantage."

She also joked that abstaining from sex offers her a "higher level of intensity because I don't have any pressure release" and that "everybody knows me as ... stressed out."

'If He chooses to bless me, He gets all the glory'

After Jones' fourth place finish in the 2012 Olympic 100-meter hurdles, many Twitter users seemed to allege that had she been sexually active, perhaps she would have performed better.

But Jones is a Christian and has credited her faith for sustaining her.

"I had to constantly remind myself, 'When I am weak, He is strong,'" she told the Gospel Herald in 2015. "I'm really telling myself, 'I can't do this in my own strength.' Even the Word says it's not by your strength, it's by God."

"If He chooses to bless me, He gets all the glory," Jones added to the outlet. "That's what I'm really trying to rely on right now. I literally have nothing else. I'm in such a bad position right now from the injuries that literally I'm in a position where God gets all the glory."

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