Lolo Jones has angered her bobsled teammates just eight months ahead of the Winter Olympics by publicly revealing the paycheck she received from the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, which determines compensation on performance results.
On Monday, Jones posted a video to Vine complaining about the check and joking she might be late in paying her rent this month.
"Several months with bobsled season. The whole season. That's it. I'm going to be a little late on my rent this month," she said, Weekly Citizen reports.
Her statement hasn’t been well received by her teammates, as fellow bobsledder Steven Holcomb referred to it as "a slap in the face."
"It wasn't taken very well," he told USA Today. "People were really kind of insulted. You just made $741, more than most athletes in the sport. So what are you complaining about?"
He also said the video “came across to a lot of the athletes here was kind of snobby because she's one of the most well-known athletes in the world and she's making pretty good money in endorsements (as a two-time Olympic hurdler). And to basically turn around and slap us in the face because you didn't make any money this year in bobsledding while taking money from other athletes? She slapped pretty much every athlete in the U.S. federation in the face. That was the general consensus."
Through one of her sponsors, Redbull, Jones said in a statement "I didn't want to offend anyone, and I've always wanted to help out my bobsled teammates. Some of them have debt because they've given their life to the sport. My partner Jazmine and I had to raise money for the bobsled to be funded just to finish the season, because only 2 of the 3 sleds are funded by the team. I can't imagine halfway through my track season having to stop and raise money to finish.”
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