ABC 'Dancing With the Stars' Cast and Partners 2014: Lolo Jones Opens Up About Olympics-Created Fear of Being Teased, DWTS Elimination
Three-time Olympian Lolo Jones has opened up about what being the first celebrity eliminated from Season 19 of "Dancing With the Stars" feels like.
Jones has been in three Olympics (twice as a track hurdler and once as a bobsledder) and knows what it feels like to be under high amounts of pressure and not live up to expectations.
"I just felt everything swirling inside and for me, obviously, I have two past Olympics, or three now, where I've come so close to a medal," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "Every time those things happen, people tease me. They're like, 'You're such a failure in the spotlight,' And so literally, when that dance happened, I had that moment. I was like, here it goes again. Now everybody is going to say I have a bad attitude."
"That moment" was allegedly started with a text message gone wrong that occurred at the beginning of her cha cha routine with professional partner Keo Motsepe. Jones complained about the text on Monday night's episode to the judges, calling her performance afterwards "awful."
Jones received a 22 out of 40 for her first performance.
"Last night was hard, but what's even harder is having people send me all these messages like we hate you, you have such a bad attitude," she said on Wednesday. "How is me being competitive bad?"
Jones ended her track season prematurely in order to practice for "Dancing With the Stars."
"It was definitely just disgust at myself because I knew that dance," she said.
The athlete is especially disappointed because her early elimination means the premature elimination of her partner. This was Motsepe's first season on the show.
"I think it's disappointing that someone who is new to the show goes home the first week because you really want someone like that to get a chance to get momentum," said professional dancer Allison Holker, who also joined the show this season. "I would hope to see him back on a future season ... because people need to learn who he is, see what his style of choreography is."
Jones posted a Facebook status about her elimination on Tuesday.
"I joined the other competitors upstairs and I couldn't force a smile on my face. I felt like vomiting and in between the other dances I went in a back room and fought back tears. I felt so broken. So unlovable," she wrote. "I really wanted to stay on the show and have the layers of hurt wash away by showing the public how hard I work. I wanted to come away a victor for once. I wanted to do so good performing in public that the haters would stop teasing me."
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