Olympic 100-meter hurdler Lolo Jones assisted the United States team in winning gold on Sunday in the combined bobsled-skeleton team event at the world championships held in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
This is Jones’ first gold medal in her short bobsledding career, which began shortly after her disappointing performance at the 2012 London Olympics. She failed to medal there in the 100-meter hurdles after being considered as the heavy favorite.
Jones was the brakewoman for fellow American Elana Meyers in the women’s bobsled portion of an event that also included times in two-man bobsled plus men’s and women’s skeleton.
The Americans were able to scrape past the Germans by 0.24 seconds despite the Germans winning three of four events on the Olympia track.
Jones can now add her gold medal to her two indoor 60-meter hurdles world titles, which she won in 2008 and 2010.
Steven Holcomb, who is the U.S. two-man bobsled pilot, also earned a gold medal after a devastating defeat on Sunday. The 32-year-old Holcomb lost his title to 22-year-old Francesco Friedrich of Germany, ultimately finishing fourth.
According to bobsled’s world governing body, Friedrich is the youngest world champion in history at 22 years and 270 days. The original record was set by Swiss driver Reto Capadrutt in 1935.
Friedrich also became the first man to win senior and junior titles in the same season in the two-man bobsled competition.
American skeleton racer Noelle Pikus-Pace defeated German Marion Thees by 1.7 seconds to propel the U.S. to victory. The Canadians took home the bronze medal, falling 1.01 seconds behind the Americans’ overall time of 4 minutes, 31.29 seconds.
Meyers and Jones finished third in the women’s bobsled, while Holcomb and Curtis Tomasevicz were the third-fastest two-man bobsled team. John Daly finished seventh in the men’s skeleton.
Jones has found a new sport that she can thrive in since she has been unable to win gold in 100-meter hurdles in the last two Olympics.
