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'As far as all of us are concerned, she's a winner,' fan says

A gold medal may have eluded Lolo Jones in Beijing, but she garnered a golden moment in her homecoming to Des Moines on Friday.

An overflow crowd of about 400 people came out to the Jordan Creek Amphitheater in West Des Moines to welcome the Olympic hurdler home. After a brief ceremony, she went inside to sign autographs for a line of people that stretched at least 200 feet long.

It seemed like all 400 people had a Lolo story to tell. Janet Bannister of Des Moines remembered Jones from 10 years ago. Bannister's son, Chris, and Jones both were track runners at Roosevelt High School, and Jones had dinner at the Bannisters' home once.

"She was the first and only girl my son brought home for dinner," Bannister said. "She was just very beautiful, a warm, friendly person, and shy. Very polite. A great sense of humor."

Bannister said she admired Jones.

"I just love this woman. She didn't have an easy life. She makes you proud to be from Iowa," Bannister said. "It was a wonderful feeling (watching the Olympics) just to know that I had met her. As far as all of us are concerned, she's a winner."

Mykal Sadler, 10, had a Drake Relays champions flag to be autographed on Friday. Mykal was reaching out from the front row to high-five Jones during her victory lap at the 2006 Relays when Jones handed her the flag.

And Mykal and a friend, Nadine Phanfil, ran on the Des Moines Youth track team. It's not only the same team that Jones ran on, but Phanfil's mother, Kendra, was a teammate of Jones.

"We have all of her clippings," said Mykal's mother, Eleena. "Then, when we found out this summer that Lolo ran for Des Moines Youth, that made the connection even more so."

Nadine said that she'd like to follow in Jones' speedy footsteps.

"I really want to be fast and have all the records," she said.

Twins Brianna and Lauren Kline, 11, waited in line with their mother and two toddler sisters. Brianna had a photo of Jones that she wanted to get autographed.

"I want something to show my sisters when they grow up," Brianna said.

Patti Cale-Finnegan and daughter Alice, 7, wanted an Olympic souvenir hat autographed.

"My daughter was born in China and we visited in 2007," Cale-Finnegan said. "It was kind of cool that it was in China, so we paid attention with everything that was going on with the Olympics. And Lolo Jones is such a wonderful role model; she's amazing."

The welcome-back ceremony lasted about a half-hour. Jim Hallihan of the Iowa Games presented Jones with the Games' sportsmanship gold medal that read "Pursuing victory with honor."

An unscripted moment during the ceremony came courtesy of Jay Triplett, 74, of Winterset.

Dressed as Uncle Sam - complete with a white beard, a stars-and-stripes hat, a blue coat, and red and white striped pants - Triplett grabbed the microphone and sang "God Bless Lolo" to Jones.

Jones, who earlier attended an assembly at Roosevelt High School, said she was wowed by the good wishes she has received since returning to Des Moines.

"I am so glad that people came out to support me," Jones said.

"The Olympics were six weeks ago. For people to come out and tell me that I've inspired them - I love it. There's other people that received medals and didn't receive any kind of welcoming home from their own cities. It's amazing. I'm truly blessed to be from Iowa."

Source: The Des Moines Register