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Lolo Jones posts bobsled paycheck on Twitter, explains her complaint

By KATE STANTON, UPI.com
UPI/Hugo Philpott
UPI/Hugo Philpott | License Photo

U.S. track-and-field athlete Lolo Jones, who failed to medal in 2008 and 2012, said back in March that she was so "desperate" for a win that she had decided to join the 2014 Olympic bobsled team.

But bobsledding, as it turns out, is nowhere near as lucrative as track.

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On Monday, the 30-year-old runner-cum-bobsledder tweeted a Vine video for her bobsledding paycheck, which came out to $741.84 for seven months of training.

"Seven months with bobsled season. The whole season. That's it," Jones says.

"I'm going to be a little late on my rent this month," she adds in a fake phone call to her landlord.

Jones, who has numerous endorsements through track, probably doesn't need the money. But she did want to shed light on the lack of funding for smaller sports like bobsledding.

Jones explained her Vine vent in an interview with E! News, saying that she just wanted to "help out" bobsled athletes, some of whom went into debt to compete.

"The Vine of the paycheck is just showing the difference between track and bobsled, and to be honest, bobsledders work more hours than track!" she said.

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The bottom line is that all Olympic athletes dedicate their lives to their sports and do not all receive lucrative paychecks like athletes in mainstream professional sports. So hopefully this will make people appreciate just how hard Olympians work, often just for the love of the sport.

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