This ‘Challenge’ Contestant Claims to Be a Virgin

MTV The Challenge: Double Agents cast

The 36th season of MTV’s popular show, The Challenge, is debuting on December 9 and it will feature many familiar faces alongside a new group of rookies. One of the contestants this season has an interesting claim, especially for a show that makes no secret of cast members’ hookups and breakups. New contestant Lolo Jones, who is 38 years old, has been very open about the fact that she’s still a virgin.

Although Jones is technically a rookie, her impressive resume makes her a competitor to watch out for. Jones is an Olympian, and one of the few athletes who’s competed at both the Summer Olympics, as a hurdler, and the Winter Olympics, as a bobsledder. Fans of The Challenge may also recall seeing Jones on a season of the spin-off show, The Challenge: Champs vs. Pros.

In terms of her personal life, she’s been open about the fact that she’s still a virgin and she is saving herself for marriage.

Jones First Shared Her Decision to Remain a Virgin Until Marriage in 2012 But Recently Said She Regrets Making That Information Public

Jones first revealed her decision to remain a virgin until marriage in 2012, speaking about it on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. On the show, she told Gumbel:

It’s just something, a gift I want to give to my husband. But please understand, this journey has been hard. There’s virgins out there, I’m gonna let them know, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Harder than training for the Olympics, harder than graduating from college, has been to stay a virgin before marriage.

She said that remaining celibate has made her a lot more “stressed out” and she has a “higher level of intensity,” which has a direct impact on her focus as an athlete. Since she revealed that information, she’s spoken about it regularly and even states in her Twitter bio: “Holding out till 41 because there needs to be a movie sequel to the 40 Year Old Virgin. Praise Jesus.”

However, earlier this year, Jones spoke to Kevin Hart on his series Cold as Balls and said revealing her virginity was “a mistake.” She told Hart, “That killed all my dates after that. Like didn’t even have a chance. Before, at least I had a chance. Before, I’d like, tiptoe. ‘Okay, when’s a good time to tell him? Do I wait until he sees my personality a little bit? Or do I just drop the bomb?’”

Since Filming ‘The Challenge: Double Agents’, Jones Has Returned to Olympic Training

Jones recently posted to Instagram that she’d started training for the Winter Olympics as a bobsledder but that she had a shorter training period because of her appearance on The Challenge. She said, “I have been preparing to make the USA National Bobsled Team. ⁣I normally would spend 6 months to get ready. I spent three weeks.”

She first explained that she’d been training for track and field for the Summer Olympics when they were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She said, “After months of sitting in my house with all my races cancelled I was beyond frustrated. I just wanted to compete in something. I didn’t care what. So I decided to go on the reality show @challengemtv.”

She said after filming, she went straight to the Olympic Training Center in New York to try to make the Olympic bobsled team. She wrote, “I only had a few weeks to get powerful for Team trials. …⁣ Tomorrow is race day and oddly, I’m ready to compete in my first Bobsled race in years. I didn’t gain all the weight in time. I’m 155 pounds and the rest… 10 pounds fury. let’s go.” On November 22, she announced that she successfully qualified for the USA National bobsled team.

READ NEXT: The Challenge’s Ashley Cain Says His 2-Month-Old Daughter Has Leukemia