Iowa Grown: Harrison Barnes & Lolo Jones

This week I wanted to take some time to talk about some of the most influential athletes in my life. While I have a long personal list of athletes I look up to, I decided to talk about two of Iowa's own in this blog post, as I am also an Iowa native myself. Harrison Barnes and Lolo Jones are probably two of the most well-known names when it comes to athletics in the state of Iowa. For the few of you that don't know who these people are, here is a quick bit on each of them and how they relate to me:

Lolo Jones- Lolo Jones was born in Des Moines, Iowa and is considered one of the best American track and field athletes. She won 3 NCAA titles as well as several All-American honors while competing at LSU. She competed in several Summer Olympics but could never clinch the gold medal in her hurdles events. In 2014, she entered the Winter Olympics as a member on the USA Bobsled team in hopes of finally winning a gold medal. Pictured below is Lolo Jones competing in the 2011 Drake Relays held in Des Moines. While I didn't actually take the photo, I was in the same vicinity! My personal connection with Lolo Jones took place at the Drake relays because I also competed there several years in high school as a high jumper and got to watch Lolo compete first hand.

Harrison Barnes: Harrison Barnes was born in Ames, IA and is currently an NBA player for the Golden State Warriors. Barnes was a multi-sport athlete at Ames High School and was considered the #1 high school basketball player in the nation in 2010. He played college basketball as a University of North Caroline Tar Heel for two season before he entered the 2012 NBA draft. He was drafted as the #7 pick to the Warriors where he is still currently playing. My connection with Harrison Barnes comes from high school. Harrison Barnes played for Ames, which was in the same conference as Mason City, the school I went to (Go Mohawks!) so I got to watch Barnes compete every time he came to town. Pictured below is HB as a Warrior today and also HB competing in his last high school athletic event- the long jump which just so happened to also be at the Drake Relays in 2010. Clearly the Drake Relays brought many successful athletes together.

Besides their incredible commitment to their sports and success they've both had, I've realized that these are two athletes that I admire because I feel like I can connect with them. Both Harrison Barnes and Lolo Jones take time out of their day to show appreciation to their fans. Not only do they talk to their fans personally, they are both active users of their social media accounts. Many athletes today have turned to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to provide their fans with access into their personal lives outside of sports. People in today's society are interested in knowing what their favorite celebrities do in their spare time. These sites are also a great platform to promote charities, events, and products they are associated with.

One of the best uses of social media for popular athletic figures is connecting with their fans. In a recent Facebook article, Jones and Barnes were both named for being some of the most loyal Twitter users to their fans. In an interview, Jones explains that she loves replying to her fans and its usually at random times, like between sets of weight lifting. Periodically Barnes will announce that he will be having a Q&A.

Q&A while I'm stuck in traffic?
— Harrison Barnes (@hbarnes) August 23, 2013

This screenshot of one of Barnes' Q&A sessions on Facebook shows that he is committed to answering as many fans as possible, and you can see he has replied to every post in the comments!

Here are a few other posts that give us an inside look at their everyday life, and provide us more personal insight than any other media sources could provide.

well done @mikaela_foecke on becoming the first prep athlete from Iowa to win this. @hbarnes and I are proud of ya http://t.co/5qCzubbXD1
— Lolo Jones (@lolojones) December 18, 2014

Harrison Barnes uses Skype to verbally commit to UNC

Social media has become a common base for fans to connect with people they don't know personally. Television and news articles provide us with scores, stats, and basic updates of athletes but social media has helped take the step towards getting a better picture 'behind the scenes' in celebrities everyday lifestyles,

So if you haven't already, go ahead and click the follow button on the embedded tweets above, search their names on Instagram, or even like their pages on Facebook to  get a look at the daily life of these two incredible athletes that root back to Iowa. Who knows, maybe they'll even reply to one of your questions!