Lolo Jones (born Lori Jones), 29, qualified to go to the London Olympics and represent the American track team during the U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Saturday, where she nabbed a third-place finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles.

The ninth hurdle has previously been a doozy for Jones, when she had been pegged the favorite for the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Training has paid off for Jones, however. Though she is the American record holder for the shorter 60-meter hurdles, with a time of 7.72, the Baton Rouge native, outspoken Evangelical Christian and proponent of abstinence before marriage, is raising the bar to the 100-meter competition, reports the New York Daily News.

At the same time, since Jones came into the trials in ninth place this year, not many expected her to make it to the finals and be Olympics-bound. Though the media has seemed to follow the photogenic Jones' every last jump, competitor and defending Olympic champion Dawn Harper isn't having it. The media, Harper says, "can have who they want to have, as long as I come back and win."

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