Bisexual Olympian reveals some athletes won’t even shake his hand since he came out

Bisexual Olympic hopeful Jack Woolley has revealed that some of his opponents won’t shake his hand since he came out.

The Irish athlete revealed that he was bisexual in 2016 on RTÉ’s Road to Rio documentary when he was just 17-years-old. Four years on, he has become the first Irish person to qualify for the Olympics in Taekwondo.

“It is tough, my sport,” Woolley told Extra.ie.

“A lot of the top athletes would be Muslim, so you can’t be too open about it. I have had some opponents who wouldn’t shake my hand and I’m just thinking ‘you need to cop on’.

“Some have, though. One of the top fighters in the world came up to shake my hand after I won the European silver. I appreciated that.”

Despite the occasional detractor, Woolley insists that most people “don’t care” about his sexuality.