Jack bounces back from injury layoff with move to pro ranks

Jack O’Leary is a young man in a hurry and it’s not hard to see why.

Earmarked as one of Ireland’s brightest athletic talents since he teenage years, Jack was in the form of his life with Iona College in New York when a stress fracture in his lower back last September left him practically bed bound for six weeks.

Fast forward seven months and Jack, who recently signed a sponsorship deal with Keane’s CarePlus Pharmacy, Mullingar, is nearing full fitness again and is scheduled to run in Belfast in May, his first race since he broke his back.

It will also be his first time to compete in Ireland since he moved to America in August 2016 after accepting a sports scholarship from Iona, the latest in a long line of Irish athletes to make the same journey.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Jack revealed that prior to his injury he had already decided that he was going to cut his final year at Iona short and make the move back to Ireland to enter the world of professional sport.

He made the life changing decision while watching the Tokyo Olympics from the sofa in his family’s home in Killucan and wondering what might have been.

“A big part of me was thinking that if I had played my cards right, hadn’t been in America and ran the right races to qualify for the Olympics, I might have made it there. That was such a punch in the stomach as I then questioned what was I doing?” he told the Westmeath Examiner.

“The reason I went to America was to eventually compete in the Olympics and world championships and to learn how to do that.

“It was a weird feeling because for the first four years in America I wasn’t good enough. Then all of sudden I am getting closer to the world class standard to qualify for the games.”

Feeling stronger and faster than ever before and with the results to match, the timing of Jack’s injury last September was inopportune to say the least. “My original plan was to race at the American national championships, NCAA Division 1, in November for the school as my last race before I came home but then I broke my back, a stress fracture in my sacrum,” he said.

“I had had an amazing season. I got two All American titles and all my PBs, were run between January and May 2021. It went from being one of the best times of my life to the worst times of my life in the flick of a switch.

“I was in bed for three weeks. I had to stop moving. I was in crutches for three weeks after getting out of bed. There was three months of no running. I can shrug off how bad it was because in my own head I blocked out how terrible it was.”

In December he went up to cheer on his fellow Mullingar Harriers team mates Cormac Battle and Jamie Dalton in the European Cross-Country Championships.

Delighted that his friends came home with medals, Jack admits that it hurt that he wasn’t able to compete for his country in a competition that he loves.

“In the last eight years I have only missed two European Cross Country Championships, including that one and it would have to have been at home,” he added.

Jack has put in the hard yards, literally and figuratively, over the winter and spring to get himself back to his best. He is not quite there yet, but he is happy with how things are going and is grateful to be back home training in familiar surroundings, which being coached by fellow Mullingar Harrier Joe Ryan.

“I had six weeks of nothing, then slowly incorporating swimming, 30 minutes a day, then cycling. After about to 10 to 12 weeks he was able to start using the anti-gravity treadmill for three or four weeks. Then it was one minute running and two minutes walking,” he continued.

“Fast forward seven months later and I am running 120 and 130km a week. The stretch of canal between The Downs and Mullingar if anyone walks there they are sick of the face of me. I nearly live out there more than I do at home.”

Proud of his Mullingar roots and grateful for the athletic education he received in Mullingar Harriers growing up, he is very impressed with the club’s new track in Grange.

“It’s an amazing facility now. Before Mullingar athletes had to travel to Athlone or Tullamore to run on a track but now we have a track to ourselves. It’s unbelievable. You have athletes from across the country travelling here now.”

He recently signed a kit deal with the up-and-coming Danish sportswear brand Saysky and this precludes him from wearing the famous maroon and white of Harriers when racing. However, there is one exception coming the road, which he is looking forward to. “What’s brilliant and unique about Ireland is that at the national championships, there are no sponsors so you can wear your club singlet, which is great. I am delighted about that. Hopefully at the nationals in June I can bring a title back to Mullingar,” he said.

After months of rehab and building his fitness back up, Jack has a busy few months ahead of him. While the ultimate goal is a place on the Irish team for Paris 2024 where he hopes to compete in both the 5km and 10km, if the stars align for him Jack feels that he could achieve the qualifying standards for both the world championships in Oregon in July and the European Championships, which are taking place in August.

Following the ups and downs of the past year, he is taking nothing for granted, though.

“If the injury never came, I’d nearly say it’s going to happen this summer and I’d be focusing on how I’d compete rather than just getting there.

“Please God, I will be racing for Ireland in the 10k in France in the European Cup in May. I qualified for that with my 10k PB from last year before I broke my back.

“It’s a fairly nice one to be running in an Irish vest after an injury. I will then be focusing on the national championships in the summer and then a few fast races in France and Finland. Then the Europeans and Worlds hopefully,” he concluded.