WOOLLEY Jack

General
TOKYO QUALIFICATION
In 2016 he competed in the -58kg category at the Olympic qualification event in Istanbul, Turkey, and won bronze. He needed at least a silver to secure a quota spot for Ireland for the 2016 Olympic Games. Three years later he secured an automatic quota spot for the 2020 Olympic Games through a ranking system after Chinese taekwondo athlete Yushuai Liang was unable to reach the final of the 2019 Grand Slam series in Wuxi, People's Republic of China. "It was heartbreaking [in 2016] but at the same time, if I think back I was still 17. It was such a massive dream and it was just ripped away from me but thinking back on it now it was kind of what I needed to motivate me to qualify automatically through a ranking system. Yushuai Liang was in the same situation I was in for Rio. He needed gold or silver [to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games] and got bronze. It was the same for me. I didn't make it the first time but in the same situation again, I got in." (thesun.ie, 05 Dec 2020; extra.ie, 23 Jan 2020; the42.ie, 21 Dec 2019)

TOUGH TIMES
In 2018 his grandmother passed away when he was competing at the Polish Open, where he won a gold medal. "I rang to tell my parents I got gold [at the 2018 Polish Open] and my mum was crying down the phone. She said, 'Your nanna passed away 20 minutes ago' and I was like, 'I only won the competition 20 minutes ago'. It happened at the same time. It was weird. That was hard, because we were very close. They used the gold medal as part of the offertory at the funeral but I missed it, because I had to get on a plane to Taiwan for a Grand Prix. I only came home to give my mum the medal. I finished fifth there, even though my head was a bit all over the place and I was bit upset, but I got eight ranking points and I only qualified [for the Olympic Games] by five-and-a-half. So, if I skipped Taiwan, I wouldn't be going to the Olympic Games." A few weeks after he competed in Chinese Taipei he was in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for a tournament and his father contracted meningitis. "My mum wanted me to get the shots over there, but I thought it would affect my ability to compete. I came home and got the shots. But that was tough. He was in hospital for two months, we thought he was going to die, he couldn't walk or anything." (extra.ie, 23 Jan 2020)

HELP FROM PSYCHOLOGISTS
In 2016 he began enlisting the help of psychologists at the Sport Ireland Institute in Abbotstown, Ireland. "Everyone is very friendly out there, but they all have their own groups. The boxers are in one group, swimmers in another, athletics. I am the only taekwondo player out there, so I am on my own. I feel a lot more comfortable now [speaking in 2020] than I did when I first went out. So, I was this skinny little kid and walking into this room with all these athletes with Olympic tattoos plastered over themselves. And my mum says if it wasn't for the psychologist, I would be a lost cause because of all the pressure." (extra.ie, 23 Jan 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
He coaches children at South Dublin Taekwondo in Tallaght, Ireland, and has also done administration work for the club. He is also a qualified corner judge and has officiated in national competitions as part of the Irish Taekwondo Union [ITU]. (sd-tkd.com, 15 Mar 2020; LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2020)