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Lolo Jones agreed to try bobsledding because she needed something to take her mind off the rigors of her Olympic track season.
Three weeks later, she's got a spot on the national team.
Jones, a two-time Olympic hurdler, was one of 24 athletes selected to the U.S. bobsled team Thursday. She's one of six women's push athletes selected, a group that also includes Olympic sprinting gold medalist Tianna Madison.
"I just came out here and kind of needed to get away from track for a bit, kind of wanted to get some motivation," Jones told The Associated Press. "I thought coming out here with the other girls that we could help each other, we could benefit from one another. I could help them with their speed and they could help me with my strength. And just being around them, hearing their goals gave me new goals and refreshed me."
Jones was fourth at the London Games, the second time she's gone to an Olympics and come home without a hurdles medal. She was the favorite for gold at Beijing in 2008, then hit the next-to-last hurdle and finished seventh.
She still plans to compete in hurdles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Only now, a trip to the 2014 Sochi Games — in a bobsled — might come first.
"This is a breath of fresh air — cool, very cool, cold air," Jones said.
Jones and Madison were among a small number of track athletes invited to Lake Placid for bobsled's push championships this month by U.S. coach Todd Hays. He believed veteran Olympians would, if nothing else, help some of the team's younger competitors and raise team morale.