Jack Woolley: "Not every young guy from Tallaght can say he's a two time Olympian"
The margins couldn't have been closer as Ireland's taekwondo pioneer experiences as a "weird but lovely" day in Paris
Jack Woolley left the Grand Palais without an Olympic medal around his neck but with his head held high.
Woolley, 25, was left distraught when his first Games in Tokyo was done and dusted in no time at all. In his second, he also fell just short of winning a contest that would have put him in a bronze medal fight.
But Ireland's first and so far only taekwondo Olympian described his day "weird and lovely" after bowing out at the repechage stage to a familiar foe, his Spanish rival Adrian Yunta.
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It was a very close encounter. Yunta took the first round 10-9, with the referee's appeal that the Spaniard's foot went out of the ring before the clock went to 0.0 was not upheld. It was the right call, and it was crucial.
The second was even closer, finishing 2-2, and Yunta was awarded the round on countback due to scoring with more technical shots.
Earlier, after his quarter-final loss to the hugely impressive Azerbaijan's Gashim Magomedov, Woolley had said it would be a dream come true if he was able to come back to fight in the "beautiful" Grand Palais stage, the finest he had ever competed at.
That dream was fulfilled and, after spending a rejuvenating hour with friends and supporters, he was "buzzing" to get back in as Magomedov's advance to the final opened the door for him to contest the repechage.
"I loved every second of that," said Woolley. "I have to say, although the result wasn't there, I'm proud of myself that I showed a true representation of my ability.
"Me and that Spanish lad have taken matches off each other. I beat him in the European Championships two years ago, he beat me in the final European games last year. Now, he beat me by a point at the Olympics.
"I think it's going be my time next time - but hopefully that's not until LA and in the final. But, I'm really excited with that match. I could hear by the crowd that it was entertaining, throwing legs a bit as usual, that's me. And yeah, I just really buzzed off that much better than any performance that the Irish public have seen.
"Unfortunately, our sport isn't televised all year round and you only get to see the Olympics. Hopefully that can change in the future, and you get to see what Jack Woolley is really made of."
The Dubliner admitted after the Magomedov fight that he would have laughed if he had been told six months ago that he would be back performing on this stage.
It has been a tough Olympic cycle for him but he knows that while he was fuming inside after the quarter-final fight, won comfortably by the Azeri, his reaction shows how far he has come.
Woolley recalled: "I was like, 'right, forget about that, you've got here, you can call yourself a two time Olympian, but what you want to do is call yourself an Olympic medalist, and the only way to do that now is to be ready and go back in there and smash it'.
"I did a lot of psychology work recently, and my coach even picked up on it, and he said, 'You look like a different person'. And you know what it is, I'm enjoying it, and I think that's all anyone can ask for.
"And I hope that showed at home, and encourages everybody else to, you know, get involved in the sport or or keep going with the sport, because we're having fun.
"You know, it's the Olympics. Not every young guy from Tallaght can say he's a two time Olympian."
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