Lolo Jones accuses USA Bobsled of nearly paralyzing her: Completely destroyed me

Multi-sport Olympian Lolo Jones alleged that the U.S.Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) “stripped my rights, nearly paralyzed me” and denied her medical care after she suffered a spinal cord injury while training in March 2025.The 43-year-old explained that the USOPC and USA Bobsled “completely destroyed me” in a post on X Wednesday — after she reshared a Substack article by Zielhaus, an independent entity that reports on the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), that published the injury news on July 23.The four-time world champ allegedly sustained “brutal lower-back pain, numbness, leg instability, foot drop, loss of bladder control” while testing a new sled in a new racing position for Team USA days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y.John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC medical clinic, canceled Jones’s massage, which was scheduled at the Olympic Training Center’s sports medicine clinic to treat the injury, without explanation, according to Zielhaus.Jones was allegedly told that Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and had already received one that week.Angry over the situation, Jones admitted to swearing at Faltus.

The USOPC has since admitted to wrongfully denying Jones medical care, according to Zielhaus.Jones raced in the 2025 World Championships and finished sixth with Elena Meyers Taylor in the 2-woman bobsleigh race, despite the painful injury.Jones said she was “never even given an X-ray or an MRI” by the USOPC, and that she “wasn’t even allowed to use the ice bath to numb the pain.” After Worlds, Jones paid for an MRI herself and it revealed that she sustained a herniated disc with a disc bulge, tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae and had spinal fluid leaking out.While recovering from spinal surgery Jones was informed that the USOPC banned her from the Olympic Training Center in a March 1 notice from Julie Marra, director of the USO...