03:44 PM CST on Thursday, January 13, 2005

From 11 News Staff Reports & CBS.com

The next installment of the CBS reality show "Survivor" is just weeks away and this time Houston has a stake in the game.

CBS

Jolanda Jones has been a Survivor from the time she was a child.

Houston attorney Jolanda Jones is one of the contestants who will try to outwit, outlast and outplay each other.

"I think I'm as good as anybody and that offends a lot of people," Jones said.

Jones and the other contestants are in for a surprise when they arrive in Palau, the South Pacific paradise some call the 8th natural wonder of the world. From the beginning, the game will be changed in a dramatic way: everything the Survivors have come to expect will be wiped out, according to CBS.

Jones attended Alief Elsik High School where she was an All-American in both track and field and basketball.

While attending the University of Houston, Jones was the 1989 US Track and Field Heptathlon Champion and earned an unprecedented three NCAA heptathlon championships. She was the runner-up for SWC Female Athlete of the Decade for the 80s, two-time Academic All-American while at the University of Houston and a 1989 NCAA Top Six Award winner.

She earned her law degree from UH Law Center.

An abusive relationship forced Jones to retire from track and field for seven years. Despite the odds, she resumed training while working part-time as a corporate lawyer. Within three months, she had qualified for the 1996 US Olympic Trials. Unfortunately, her 19 year-old brother was murdered two weeks before she was to compete. His death and only five months of training proved too much to overcome (although she did win the high jump portion of the heptathlon and was in sixth place after three events). After competing in three events, she became severely dehydrated and was forced to withdraw.

CBS

Such accomplishments have earned Jones a spot in the Cougar Hall of Fame at the University of Houston Athletic/Alumni Center. She was inducted into the GTE (Verizon) Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 1999. She was inducted into the Texas Black Hall of Fame in 2003.

Jones largely credits her success to her tumultuous childhood. When she was 13 months old, her father committed suicide while she was in the room. Her mother had four more children, and Jones became their primary caretaker while their mother worked. There were times when the family went without water, electricity or heat. When Jones was a teenager, their rented house burned down due to the use of candles in place of electricity. Two of her uncles committed suicide, her aunt was murdered and various members of her family are in prison and on welfare. Jones credits her criticizing mother and supportive grandmother for teaching her to be the best and stand up for the poor and disenfranchised.

Jones currently resides in Houston, with her 13-year-old son, Jiovanni.

You can watch 'Survivor' on CBS/Channel 11 beginning on February 17.