American Lolo Jones Takes Fourth Place in London Olympics 100-Meter Hurdles

She wasn't the best athlete, not even close.

That photo is from Doha in 2010, via Wikimedia Commons.

And here's Bill Plaschke, at the Los Angeles Times, "Heat was on Lolo Jones, and she got burned":

LONDON — In the end, the most hyped Olympian was also the most alone.

Lolo Jones finished the 100-meter hurdles in a desperate lunge, stood by the finish line staring up at an Olympic Stadium scoreboard that registered a fourth-place finish and then slowly walked away.

She didn't stick around to congratulate the two medal-winning Americans, both of whom had questioned her enormous pre-race publicity. She didn't hang out to schmooze with fans who have increasingly questioned her sincerity. The cloudy and cool London skies broke into a steady drizzle as she walked into a tunnel and fought back tears.

"I guess all the people who were talking about me, they can have their night and laugh about me," she said.

It's a nasty business, this Olympic star-making machine. These athletes have one chance every four years to rake in the real gold, the endorsement and appearance money that helps compensate them for years of training. Most agree they would be fools to turn down that chance to capitalize on their success and enhance the quality of their often budget-strained lives.

Yet when Olympic athletes seek and embrace this publicity, they are criticized unless they have the medals to back it up. We chuckle at a guy like Terrell Owens working the system even though he has never won a Super Bowl, but heaven forbid an Olympian does the same thing, and shame on that Olympian if she is a woman.

In the middle of this double standard is where Lolo Jones found herself awkwardly standing Tuesday after, once again, her performance did not back up her buzz.

"I'm really disappointed in myself, and I felt like I let a lot of people down," she said, fighting back tears. "I just feel like a big disappointment."

The way she was viewed by many, anything less than a gold medal followed by a marriage proposal from Tim Tebow followed by a pole dance would have been a disappointment.

Jones entered these Olympics as a Time magazine cover girl, a partially nude ESPN model and Jay Leno's guest. She was an empathetic figure after losing a gold medal in 2008 in Bejing when she hit the penultimate hurdle in the final. She was an embraceable figure after sharing a background that include living in a Des Moines Salvation Army church basement. And, of course, to many she was a sexy figure with her good looks and openness that included talking about her virginity at age 30.

Put it another way: This was the only Olympian who went on national television and wondered about asking Tebow for a date...

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Jones' race in Beijing 2008 is here. She would've had the gold, but repeats don't come easy, as events showed.

And all that publicity didn't come easy, either. The New York Times ripped Jones in a feature story the other day, "For Lolo Jones, Everything Is Image."

RELATED: At the Washington Post, "Sally Pearson wins Olympic gold to boost Australia's ailing Olympic campaign; Jones misses out."