You love Lolo Jones because she says what's on her mind. Or you hate Lolo Jones because she's never won an Olympic medal and acts like the most popular Olympian of this generation.

No matter what you think of Jones, the Summer Olympics is lacking one aspect of its intrigue from Beijing and London. Jones withdrew from this July's U.S. Olympic Trials due to hip surgery recovery and a hamstring injury. She has not competed since Feb. 14.

Lolo Jones

"I've gone to the last three in a row, like not even just summer." Jones says of the Olympics. "We're talking about summer and winter. To be honest, if anybody needs a break right now from the Olympics, it would be me."

Technically, Jones has competed in three of the last four Olympics, going to Beijing in 2008 and Athens in 2012 as a member of the track team. In 2014, Jones qualified for the Sochi Winter Olympics as a bobsledder.

"It gives me time to recover from my hip surgery, and then gives me time to just figure out what I want to do -- focus more on summer, go back to winter -- so it's actually kind of nice."

For the last eight years, Jones has had a flair for the dramatic. In the 2008 Olympics, she posted the top semifinal time in the 100-meter hurdles. Jones led the final at a potentially world-record breaking pace when she tripped over the second-to-last hurdle and finished seventh. She returned to the final in 2012, but finished fourth. In her Olympic bobsled debut, Jones and teammate Jazmine Fenlator finished 11th in the two-woman.

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Jones has a sense of humor about her unfortunate Olympic events. Speaking to ThePostGame at the Audi Player Index Pickup Soccer Match on Aug. 2, Jones shared that she gets confused for U.S. Soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo.

Lolo Jones

"All the time," she says of the prevalence of the mix-up with Solo. "On planes, out in public, and I'm like, 'No, she's the one with the medals. I'm the one with no medals. That's how you tell us apart.'"

Solo has two gold medals from 2008 and 2012.

Jones says she is watching her "friends" in Rio from home, and in a June Instagram post, she set a goal for Tokyo in 2020. In the meantime, Jones turns her attention back to bobsled and PyeongChang in 2018. It's too early for Jones to say if she will definitely make a run at another Winter Games, but she says she is training in bobsled again.

"What a lot of people don't know is bobsled training and track training are very similar."

Jones was accompanied in Sochi by two-time sprinting medalist Lauryn Williams, who also made the transition from track to bobsled brakewoman. Williams won 2014 silver with Elana Meyers.

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For the 2018 Games, Jones urges more former track and field athletes to consider her path.

"I was just texting Wallace Spearmon a couple days ago, so I don't know," she says, using the 2008 and 2012 Olympian Spearmon as an example. "I can convince people with like, 'Oh, it's very similar training to track.' Where I lose them is when [I'm] like, 'Yeah, you might crash and that hurts.'"

Lolo Jones, Bobsled

Jones has gained extensive popularity outside of the hurdles and bobsled tracks thanks to her social media activity. Her 426,000 Twitter followers get a taste of her candid opinions and her 312,000 Instagram followers visually witness her high-energy lifestyle.

But social media is an undefined space, and Jones has clipped some hurdles in her critics' minds.

"If a joke is misread or misinterpreted on Twitter, at the end of the day, I'm just trying to make people laugh, so I think that sometimes, people think I'm out there for malicious intent," Jones says. "Every joke has a fine border, and it's a hard line even for comedians to navigate. And I'm an athlete, so I'm going to make mistakes."

So is Jones a funny person?

"Uhhh…I've been told," she laughs. "I'm funny as in sarcastic, and sometimes, it doesn't come off good."

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Before the Olympics, Jones explained she has jokes ready for the Olympics. Most of her content involves her track background, and those tweets will come about next week. In the meantime, she does have swimming material.

Lolo Jones, Audi

"Ryan Lochte just changed his hair color and I had some solid jokes," she says. "But I just made a joke about him the other day, so I'm going to give him a few more days and then I'll probably post it."

Lochte claims his hair is a shade of blue. ThePostGame noted it may be silver.

"He's one of the older Olympic athletes, so if it is silver, he's a silver fox," Jones says with a straight face.

Jones spoke to ThePostGame from the Audi Soccer Pickup Match at New York's Chelsea Piers Golf Club on Aug. 2. The event served as a showcase for the Audi Player Index app, a real-time MLS player tracker that allows fans to follow and evaluate player's on-field movements. Jones was among a group of journalists, athletes, models and influencers who tested the program, using an LED screen built into each jersey. When the Audi Player Index app is incorporated into MLS, unfortunately, players will not be strapped with LED screens and battery packs.

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Jones did not have hurdles or bobsled-like success in soccer. Her Audi Player Index was actually negative at the end of the match.


The 100 m hurdles goes on without Jones. Heats are Tuesday morning with the semifinals and final on Wednesday afternoon.

More Olympics:
-- 5 Weirdest Jobs At This Year's Olympics
-- We Never Understood How Great Ryan Lochte Was
-- Michael Phelps' 20th Gold Medal Is His Most Emotional

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.