Olympics Field Guide: Lolo Jones, The 29-Year-Old Virgin Hurdler

Name: Lori "Lolo" Jones

Sport: 60- and 100-meter hurdles

Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa

Age: 29

Why you should care about her: Lolo Jones is a virgin. We know this because she once tweeted: "Yes I'm a virgin. #1 reason why I'm single bc guys deuce out when I won't put out." Since that moment, she has become the modern-day, Olympian version of Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson circa 1999, appearing on a wealth of talk shows answering questions about her life-long struggle with virginity. She told HBO's Real Sports:

If there's virgins out there, I'm gonna 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.

Amidst the virginity battle, Lolo has also grappled with online dating sites, before admitting defeat and turning to Twitter for potential boyfriends.

We used to have our doubts about Lolo. Who would imagine a smoking hot, young, virginal athlete becoming a media sensation in this day and age? But then we slapped ourselves and woke up.

Lolo is now the most followed Olympic athlete on Twitter. Plus, she just landed herself a $25K sponsorship from mom-approved Procter & Gamble.

At this point we should probably mention that Lolo Jones is also a superstar Olympic hurdler. She was expected to medal at 2008 Olympics in Beijing, but she tripped over the penultimate hurdle and finished seventh. She'll do better in London.

Lolo's gotten lots of criticism for her public image, but we should go ahead and say what they said about Jessica Simpson after Newlyweds aired: the girl's a genius. Much of an Olympic athlete's career depends on landing sponsors and advertisers to make a living. She's getting paid, so good for her. And seriously, when has the purity thing ever not worked?

Olympic/world championship experience: 2008, 2010 - World Indoor Championship (Gold); 2008 - Beijing Olympics (tripped on the second to last hurdle, 7th); 2008 - World Athletics Final (Silver)

Sexy pose threat level:

Previous sexy pose: [ ESPN]

Scouting report from some guy on the Internet: Via YouTuber Zaxxen69:

VIRGIN!!!

Scouting report from home country: Via spikeduppsychedup.com:

So far this year, Lolo's performances have not warranted the enormous quantities of attention she's received. Jones has run a season's best of 12.75 seconds to take fifth in Oslo, making her just the 14th best performer in the world and 9th best American of 2012.

Jones made her debut in Eugene on Friday in the 100 meter hurdle prelims, placing third in heat two in a time of 13.01 seconds. The top three places in each preliminary race received automatically qualified to the semifinal on Saturday.

It isn't clear how hard Jones ran but she was clearly beaten in her heat by two women in contention to make the Olympic team – defending U.S. champion Kellie Wells and 2011 world silver medalist Danielle Carruthers.

Did you know? Last August, Lolo underwent back surgery and suffered from a pair of hamstring injuries, but she managed to push through it and qualify for London. No word yet on whether this accomplishment was harder than maintaing her virginity.

Olympic archetype: Carl Lewis

Forecast for 2012: Although Lolo Jones told the AP that Lolo Jones "is still the world's fastest hurdler," the track star will likely face a lot of resistance from teammates Dawn Harper and Allyson Felix.

Relevant Bob Costas facial expression: