Ones To Watch: Jasmine Jones

Hempfield High School’s Jasmine Jones thought she’d go pro in track. She took home three WPIAL Class AAA individual track and field titles.

She told Channel 11 that as a child, she never imagined doing a winter sport, let alone competing in bobsled at the winter Olympics.

She added that the first time she went down the bobsled track, she thought, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Jones grew up running sprints, first at Hempfield, then as a five-time All-MAC sprinter at Eastern Michigan. It was during college when coaches looked at her sprinting and weightlifting statistics and determined she’d be great at bobsledding.

“I didn’t know what to think about it first. I’m like this, this... is a scam. Because I’m like, who’s reached out to me about bobsledding?” she said.

Jones missed the 2022 games. She was just a few months postpartum with her daughter, Jade, and admits she went back to bobsledding too quickly.

Jones added that the journey as an athlete and a mother were worth it.

“I’m just like, thankful that I can go out there and put on an example of, you don’t have to go down one path. You can have both paths. And I feel like having, you know, each title of, I’m not just only an athlete, but I’m a mother as well,” Jones said.

Jones competes with another mother, four-time Olympic medalist Kaillie Humphries. Together they’ll maneuver down a 1,900-meter track with 16 curves, all while going about 80 mph.

Jones graduated from Hempfield in 2014 in the same class as Bridgett Williams, who competed in the javelin at the 2024 games in Paris. That year, the Hempfield girls’ track and field team won the WPIAL Class AAA Team Championship. It was the third straight year the team took the title.

“I love it. I love that. Especially, our class just had these elite athletes. And you know, Bridgett still to this day is a great friend of mine, and seeing her achieve that has been amazing, to say the least,” Jones said.

Now Williams gets to watch her former teammate on the world’s largest stage, representing Team USA and Western Pennsylvania.

“Oh my gosh. It’s definitely like it just the same, like being like Pittsburgh proud, and being, you know, hometown proud. And especially getting to this point, I couldn’t do it with the support back at home of how much people are cheering for me, and I feel like, especially being, you know, from Pittsburgh, and having just people around it that are always cheering you on and want the best for you, and at least in my opinion, of just how everyone just treats each other in that type of city as well,” Jones said. “I’m gonna do everyone proud. And yeah, this one’s for all of us. This Olympics is for all of us.”

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