FLYING FORM
O’Leary targets glory after his injury misery
WHEN your uncle is the CEO of Ryanair, and your dad is the manager of an all-conquering horseracing empire, you might think that adds a certain pressure to continue the family’s success on the international stage.
But for Jack O’Leary, the biggest victory has been just in getting back to the European Cross Country Championships after a nightmare run of injuries over the past two years.
The 21-year-old Westmeath native finished sixth in the U-20 race two years ago in Italy, a performance that marked him out as one of the most promising prospects in Irish distance running, but 2017 saw his career brought to an abrupt halt.
‘When you’re in the s***s of it, that’s the only thing keeping you going – you know it’ll eventually go away and there’s light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel,’ he says. ‘Form is temporary, class is permanent.’
O’Leary spent the first five months of 2017 injured, and while on scholarship at Iona College in New York he began to wonder whether he’d made the wrong choice by going Stateside.
‘In my head I’m thinking, “Why is everything going wrong?” But every time I get into training and get fit, even now about to represent Ireland, I know absolutely I’m in the right place.’
The solution to his injuries arrived when he booked in with renowned physical therapist Gerard Hartmann while back home on his summer break, the Limerick therapist spotting that O’Leary’s ankle pain was stemming from an injury in his hip joint which he had been carrying since the start of the year.
Two weeks later Hartmann had him back running, but his return to the top tier has been a slow process. ‘Ever since I’ve been battling to get my body in one piece, I had back injuries, calf injuries,’ he admits. ‘But the people working with me in Iona were always positive; there was no sense of urgency. They said, “fix your body, you’re here for five years, not five months.”’
There were times, he admits, where he wondered if his career was finished. ‘Every single day,’ he says. ‘It was the first time in my life I didn’t know where I was going.’
But 2018 has been kinder. O’Leary has strung together a block of consistent training and will go to the line in Tilburg, the Netherlands, tomorrow as part of an Irish team with a realistic medal chance in the U-23 race.
Watching at the venue will be his mother and two sisters, though O’Leary’s father Eddie — the manager at Gigginstown House Stud, which has come to dominate Irish national hunt racing – will be following the live stream from afar as he has to attend a horse sale in France.
Also watching online will be Michael O’Leary – Jack’s uncle – whose own sons are showing a talent for cross country racing. Indeed, Jack notes that Michael is always one of the first to send a text after each race, even if his schedule as CEO of Ryanair doesn’t allow him the time to attend as many races as he’d like.
Down the line, Jack figures he’ll return to Gigginstown to work either as a trainer or breeder of racehorses, but for now another kind of racing – not the equine kind – is his priority.
‘There’s a medal on the line if everything goes to plan and we all race our hearts out,’ he says.
‘I think I have a huge race in me but after all that’s happened, all the misery, just to have an Irish singlet on me again is the biggest achievement.’