Jack Woolley stole the heart of the nation when he appeared on Dancing with the Stars at the start of the year.
After making it to the final, Jack is now living in Spain where he’s currently training to represent Ireland once again on the Taekwondo stage.
We sat down to chat with him after a long day of training about life after DWTS, his engagement and how far he’s come since he first competed in the Olympics…
Hi Jack! Talk to me about getting involved with Vhi’s Irish Youth Foundation.
It’s something that I’ve always kind of been connected with in a way, with volunteering and being part of youth projects and initiatives from a very early age. My mam was always involved in volunteering in the local community. I’m from Tallaght, Jobstown in Tallaght so it’s kind of seen as a disadvantaged area. It was really good to be involved in projects as a kid. As soon as I was asked to do this I was like it just kind of aligned really well and I was super excited. Recently we did a video shoot and photo shoot in town and I met some of the young people, it was just really heartwarming to be back in that environment. So it was really enjoyable, such an honour to be part of it, as the Ambassador of the Vhi Health and Wellbeing Fund. It’s something that’s kind of come full circle, you know.
Aw, that’s so lovely. What is it like to be a role model, Jack?
It’s a hard one to answer because I love it. Having people reach out and give me their stories, you know. I gave a story before about a young person who I went back to visit my old primary school and he was the only boy on the dance team. He said some really nice words and I’ve been in that position it was really humbling. So in aspects like that and seeing myself in these young people it’s such an amazing feeling that they can have somebody like me to look up to. They can say, “Oh look this person started where I am and look how far he’s gotten in life”. And it’s such an amazing feeling. But it’s hard to kind of not cross that line of being overly confident. I like to think of myself as very honest and humble and I like to keep it that way. So something like this like the project with the Health and Wellbeing Fund with Vhi and the Irish Youth Foundation is just such a nice feeling you know.
You were on Dancing with the Stars earlier this year. You’re an Olympian first and foremost, but has DWTS brought a new audience to you?
I don’t know whether that’s just because of the exposure I had week on week with the Dance with the Stars. The Olympics is probably the biggest sporting event in the world. The exposure you get from that is just as big if not bigger. But I think showing the real me and the person I am outside of the sport kind of helps and it kind of makes you a bit more approachable. I think a lot of people kind of have this preconception of athletes that we’re kind of like robots. So I think with the Dance with the Stars being able to go out and show the real Jack let people in and let them know that I’m just a normal person and they can approach me. You know you’re sat on a Luas now, and you have people go, “Oh my god you’re the dancer,” and I’m like, “Well no I did go to the Olympics,” but like that would never have happened before. So I think it’s opened many doors for me and hopefully, I can continue to kind of keep my name out there and be a good role model for people.
You’re in Spain now, training. How is that for you? Is it hard to be away from home?
Yeah, it’s a rollercoaster of emotions to be fair, because I am here on my own. I do love my team and it’s a great environment to be in, I’m training really well. I’m just starting to ease back into competitions. I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and rainbows and everything was perfect, because I wake up in the morning, I go to training and I come home, I eat, and I wait around until I have to train again. Being recently engaged and having your fiancé on the other side of Europe isn’t ideal, but these are the sacrifices we make as athletes and I’m just trying to manage it as best as possible. I know with my new coaching team and my new teammates and everything, they try to make it as comfortable as possible for me. The highlight of my day is training and as an athlete, I think that is such an important thing to have because if the highlight of your day was finishing and going home, I think you’d need to reevaluate yourself. I’m just super privileged to be able to say that training is a highlight for me and I’m enjoying it out here at the moment. I am getting old for the sport, so to be able to still have the love for it that I had 10 years ago is really important, so I’m really glad to be here.
Do you get home much?
No, not so much. Luckily my partner is coming over next week for a few days, so it’s only a two-hour flight, but I know that’s not too much. It’s quicker to get to Madrid than it is to get to Cork from Dublin. It can be challenging, especially when we’ve got training sessions and then we’re doing training camps around Europe and competitions are coming back in. You can’t be distracted. It’s not like I can fly home the week before a competition and just be all ready to go. You have to time everything right. Luckily I have plans of having training camps around Europe this summer and hopefully, my partner will be able to tag along. My coaches here are very supportive and they understand that you need to have a good positive mindset in order to train and compete at the highest level. For me to do that, it’s to be able to have moments with my friends, my family, my partner. If that’s not possible for me to go home, then they’re fully on board with them coming to me. I’m really lucky in that regard.
I have to be honest, Jack. I don’t know much about Taekwondo. Do you have an off-season?
To be honest, I’ve been doing this for 20 years and sometimes I feel like that. I look at it and I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on. That’s just the sport for you. Our off-seasons, we don’t really get any. [Laughs] Luckily, I’m getting two weeks off at the end of June, last week of June, first week of July to come home for a few days. So I think that’s the moments I can get to come home. I think they’re the most important for me just to refocus and centre myself.
How is engaged life?
There’s no difference at all. Absolutely no difference. [Laughs] To be fair, myself and Dave have been very open about our feelings kind of from day one. Like sometimes we’d just be lying there and I’m like telling them all about the colour scheme of our wedding and this is like a month into us being together. So like the engagement wasn’t too much of a surprise. Where it happened and how it happened, yeah that was a surprise. But like I’d have been raging if I’d ended this year away without a ring on my finger! I think it was a long time coming. It’s four years of us being together. I would have said yes after two weeks. Being away from him, people say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. Them people must be insane. I don’t know how people do long distance. It’s what I need to do for my sport and he’s got his own life. I think we’re both on separate journeys but we’re doing it together. I think it’d be different if I was stuck in Dublin and he was off doing something. He’s going to Templemore [Garda College] very soon and then I’ll be here. So whether one of us is at home it doesn’t really make a difference. It’s nice that he’s able to travel over here while he has the time.
You had been teasing an engagement for a while to be fair!
Yeah, he was ready to do it in Paris. We’d had conversations and I kind of felt it coming. I was like do not propose to me unless I get a medal in Paris. I was like don’t do it. I’m going to be pretty disappointed with myself. I wasn’t too overly disappointed because I enjoyed Paris but I did want to have that high and not be proposed to. So I think the plan then I found out was if I won Dancing with the Stars he was going to jump over the ting, push Jennifer Zamparelli out of the way and propose on the telly. So you’re not too far off with that but then he just waited until after. Then he was going to wait until Tenerife because me and Kayleigh Trappe went on holidays with our partners two weeks after dancing. He was going to do it on the beach, kind of stereotypical probably. He was probably going to have photos for Instagram and everything. But he mentioned it to Danny O’Carroll that he was going to propose if I had won. And he was like, “Do you have the ring in your pocket? Do it now because his ma’s here, his da’s here, all his friends, his family. He was like all of us, like do it now.” And Dave just got handed a microphone. So basically Danny O’Carroll proposed for Dave in a way. He kind of forced him into it but yeah that was such fun.
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That’s too cute! Can we talk about sport for a second. You’ve spoken about the pressure of Taekwondo, especially when it comes to your weight class. Do you think this sort of thing affects young people continuing in the sport?
Yeah you do see a big drop off especially in teenagers. Unfortunately, it’s mostly girls. There’s like the initiative of keeping young girls in sports, especially 15, 16-year-olds. In a weight-making sport, it’s just not positive with hormones and body changes. Luckily in the club I’m in now there’s a male and a female head coach. So there’s the understanding of both sides. But I think in sports nowadays there tends to be a majority leaning towards male coaches and I don’t think we understand half the time. And that’s just a lack of information and a lack of training. Yes, you can understand the sport and you can understand weight-making in general, but you need to be able to understand people’s bodies and the mental side of things that comes into it. It is unfortunate that my sport is like that because, and I have said, if I ever had kids, personally from what I have gone through, I wouldn’t put them through it. But I’ve come out the opposite side of it now. I’ve started to feel really positive about myself. Now getting back into competition, the relationship with the scales isn’t the best, even though I have moved up a weight, there’s still that anxiety and stuff like that. But, you know, that’s what kind of comes with the sport, unfortunately. But, you know, not every single sport is 100 per cent perfect. Everything has its flaws.
I’m delighted to hear that Jack. It must be so hard for young girls and women in the sport.
I’m the only openly gay male in the sport at a high level. And I think that really did help being a coach years ago. And there was a good handful of teenage girls and we didn’t really have a female coach or role model in the club. And I think just me being myself kind of allowed the girls to talk to me. I actually remember there were coaches that didn’t like the girls wearing shorts or leggings in training. And we wear white. Yeah, let’s just say. We ended up getting the exact same Taekwondo bottoms in black for both boys and girls, to help ease any stress. It was just little things like that that not having a female coach around was it’s difficult sometimes. So trying to be a voice for girls in the sport was really important for me. And luckily that changed. We were able to wear black or white while training, which is I think going better going forward, you know.
Jack, you’ve gone through so much like you’ve said and come out the other side. What advice would you give 17-year-old Jack?
Things get better. There’s going to be some moments that are really difficult, that you didn’t expect you had to go through. I’ve always been such a confident person from a very young age. My parents brought me up to be myself always and not really give a s**t about what people think. I allowed myself to be in a position where I had to not be myself and had to become a robot. That was what I was told to pursue my dreams. And as cringy as it sounds, people always ask me about the dancing, and I’m like, it’s the best thing I’ve done just because it allowed me to be what I was like at 16 and 17. Because I think trying to qualify, and not qualifying for Rio, and then trying to qualify for Tokyo and Paris was just really a lot on me, especially at that young age. And to be the first person in Ireland to try and do it, it was very lonely at times. And I think that’s why I do get so emotional about it, because I just, I lost myself to try and make my dreams come true. That’s why I’m super proud of myself that I’m doing what’s best for me at this moment in time, and I’m not so focused on results or the end goal. I’m just focused on being happy. I’m in a good place now, and I’m proud of myself for overcoming those obstacles. But to say to teenage Jack who just missed out, because I missed out on Rio when I was 17. At that time, I would have felt like that was when I was losing myself. It was just such a lonely time. And that’s why I think like even to just bring it back to the point of the call, I think that’s why it’s kind of super important. When I was home videoing for the Vhi, I felt a while being fun, like it was kind of, it was really nice to see young people having that support system at such a young age. To see like youth groups and services allowing people to be themselves and, figure out things, it was just really important to me. So I think it’s definitely something I want to get more involved in in general.
Vhi, in partnership with Irish Youth Foundation, seeks applications to Vhi Health and Wellbeing fund focused on tackling anxiety and building resilience in young people. Applications can be made via Irish Youth Foundation until midnight on 11th June.
