Olympians Lolo Jones, Madison selected to US bobsleigh team

Two-time US Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones, pictured in August 2012, and Olympic relay champion Tianna Madison have qualified for the US World Cup bobsleigh team as sled pushers.

LAKE PLACID, New York - Two-time US Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones and Olympic relay champion Tianna Madison have qualified for the US World Cup bobsleigh team as sled pushers.

The athletics stars were among six women’s pushers on the overall team of 24 announced by the US Bobsled and Skeleton Federation after trials conducted earlier this month.

Three weeks after Jones and Madison took up the sport as a way to escape athletics but stay competitive and fit, they are set to travel the world in an icy new sport.

Jones was fourth in the 100m hurdles at this year’s London Olympics after a stumble over the penultimate hurdle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics left her seventh.

While Jones plans to continue her quest for hurdles gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, she might first have a chance for gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

US coach Todd Hayes invited Jones, Madison and other US athletics competitors to the push championships earlier this month in Lake Placid in hopes of boosting the sled team’s performance.

Madison was on the winning 4×100 US Olympic women’s relay.