She crashed once, then seven more times, whipping around sharp turns in a twisting bobsled going over 90 mph.
Key people were watching. People who held the keys to unlocking her Olympic dream. People who now had doubts.
Jeannette native Jasmine Jones also was a wreck emotionally.
The sprinter-turned-Olympic bobsled brakeman admitted she was going too fast. Becoming a single mother changed her world. And later, losing her grandfather crushed her.
Maybe she should have put her endeavor on ice.
“I came back too soon,” Jones said. “I was only four months postpartum and hopeful for the 2022 (Winter Olympics). I was training like crazy, running around in parking lots, going to a gym down in Monroeville. It was a really tough time. I wasn’t sure I could do it.”
But she did do it.
Jones, 29, is in Milano Cortina, Italy, for the 2026 Winter Olympics, where she will compete for the U.S. two-women bobsled team. That after she nearly gave up the sport following the birth of her daughter, Jade, in February 2021.
But the 2014 Hempfield graduate found strength — and regained her stability — with the help of family and friends, allowing her to do a hard reset and refocus on her Olympic dream.
“I was trying to give my all, but I had quad injuries and had more evaluations coming up in September (2021),” she said. “It was the worst. I felt super-defeated and didn’t know what to do.”
The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation tracks the progress of Olympic hopefuls through the World Cup season and other competitions.
Getting back to form
When she began to regain control in 2023, another setback rocked her world. Her grandfather Arthur “Hookum” Graves died.
Graves was a longtime Jeannette football coach and supporter, a man who knew everybody, and everybody knew him.
“He meant a lot to me,” Jones said. “I crashed eight times that year. I had to reevaluate everything. That lit such a fire under me. I made it a mission to become the No. 1 USA brakeman.”
Jones, who often goes by “Jazz,” also joined the Air Force World Class Athlete Program, which helped with financial stability and advanced her goal of having a career in the military.
She is stationed in Lake Placid, N.Y., where she lives and trains.
The former track star ran at Eastern Michigan, where coaches embraced her drive.
“Jasmine’s strong work ethic, competitive spirit and toughness led her to a very successful career in our program,” EMU associate head track and field coach Sue Parks said. “It’s no surprise to see those same qualities pay off in her bobsled endeavors.”
Jones ran a leg of the Mid-American Conference champion 400-meter relay with the Eagles and won individual indoor titles in the 200- and 400-meter dashes, earning most valuable performer honors.
Chris Best is the women’s head coach at EMU and works with sprinters and hurdlers. He noticed Jones’ determination and didn’t have to pressure her to work.
“Jasmine has always been the type of athlete every coach dreams of,” Best said. “Whatever goals she set out for herself, she would always put forth the work to get it done. When she had that first phone call with current USA bobsled member Elana Meyers Taylor, the excitement she had for this new endeavor after her track career was through the roof.
“Once Jasmine has her mind set to something there’s no stopping her, and for her to accomplish this comes as no surprise because of who she is. I’m so proud of her and can’t wait to watch her compete.”
Jones’ rise to national prominence taught her something important: All roads lead back to family.
“It’s a grind,” Jones said. “My mom is a blue-collar worker who was working swing shifts and watching my daughter while I did my recovery. My godparents also helped out. It takes a village.”
From her mom, Christine Graves, and stepfather, Ryan Vincent, to her brother, Jurell Powell — and a host of others — family is first for Jones.
Her nephew is Jeannette standout two-sport athlete Jayce Powell.
Jones went to Jeannette through fourth grade before a family move to Hempfield.
“My athleticism has to come from somewhere,” Jayce Powell said.
A gold medal would be nice, but Jones believes she already struck it rich with her daughter.
She considers having a mother to show her the way her foundation.
While 4-year-old Jade will stay home during the Olympics, Jones started a GoFundMe page to get her mom to Italy.
“She has done so much for me,” Jones said. “It would be amazing to get her here.”
‘We’ve been blessed’
Longtime Hempfield track and field coach Ron Colland saw something special in Jones from the time she began running with the varsity.
“When Maddie Holmberg became a hurdler, Jasmine moved over to sprints and starting contributing there,” Colland said. “That made her happy. She was very unselfish as a ninth grader.
“When we won the triple-A state title her junior and senior years, she anchored our 4-by-1 relay. There was a lot of determination in her face.”
Jones won WPIAL Class 3A titles in the 200 and 400.
Colland coached another Olympian, Bridget (Guy) Williams, who competed in the pole vault in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The aforementioned Holmberg, now Maddie Nickal, competed in the Olympic trials in 2021.
“We’ve been blessed,” Colland said.
Jones’ story also speaks to the athletic talent in Westmoreland County of late.
Spencer Lee, a wrestler who graduated from Franklin Regional, brought home a silver medal from the Paris games.
On the fast track
Jones initially planned on continuing her career as a track athlete but had her name submitted to a talent identification competition for bobsled during college.
Sprinters often translate to bobsledders because of the explosive speed needed to begin a race.
Generating elite force in a short distance — 30 to 50 meters — before the downhill acceleration on the icy track is key to the sport. The start is everything.
“It’s crazy,” Jones said. “I wanted to go pro in track and field. I had to make the adjustment and work really hard. At first, I was told I wasn’t good enough. Racing can be frustrating.”
But boundless hours of training and finding the perfect partner — Canadian pilot Kaillie Armbruster Humphries — led her to Italy. The duo won silver in a key event in Altenberg, Germany, and then gold in St. Moritz, Switzerland, last month to secure a spot on Team USA.
Armbruster Humphries won three Olympic gold medals competing for Canada before she became a U.S. citizen in 2022.
Now, a gold medal, not an opportunity to get one, is the No. 1 goal.
“I didn’t want to settle,” Jones said. “Now I feel like we’re in the zone. I feel it in my heart. I feel like something magical is going to happen. Give God the glory.”
For now, Jones is taking in the sights and enjoying the food around the Olympic Village as she awaits her first day of competition Feb. 20.
“We go toward the end,” Jones said. “On (Feb. 20-21) we will have four heats. There will be some down time and training until then. We’ll go on the track soon (for a practice run), and then I won’t touch a sled for two weeks.”
As for the food?
“There is a lot of pasta and pizza, and a lot of fruit,” she said. “The pizza is good, but Jioio’s back home, that’s tough to beat.”
