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Out Bi Olympian Jack Woolley Punched, Sent to Hospital in Mob Attack
Out Bi Olympian Jack Woolley Punched, Sent to Hospital in Mob Attack
The taekwondo athlete was left needing reconstructive surgery.Â
Out Irish Olympic athlete Jack Woolley is recovering after he was violently attacked on Friday by a group of men and women in Dublin. The injuries left him needing facial reconstructive surgery, which he underwent over the weekend.
On Instagram, Woolley, 22, posted images of himself bleeding from the attack. He wrote, "Last night (Friday 13th August) I went for a meal with my friend. Followed by a bar for a couple of drinks. Heading back along the River Liffey a gang of [roughly] 8-12 men and women in their 20s began violently attacking people along the boardwalk."
Woolley added that he was punched in the face as he walked by the group. One member of the group punched Woolley and said "My mistake, wrong person" before they ran off attacking other people.
"Luckily I was able to phone an ambulance and stay conscious," he wrote. Woolley added that his friends that took care of him after the attack were safe.
"Thank you all again for the support and kind messages. I hope for a speedy recovery. It's been a tough couple of months," he said.
On Sunday, the Olympic athlete posted an Instagram story of himself in the hospital recovering from surgery. He also posted after he returned home and thanked supporters again for their messages.
Woolley participated in the Tokyo Olympics last month but lost to Argentina's Lucas Guzman. He was the first Irish athlete to compete in taekwondo.
Local politician John Lahart called for more police on the streets in the wake of the attack.
"This horrific and unprovoked attack on Jack Woolley is both sickening and deeply concerning. It's hard to believe that barely two weeks ago we were all wishing Jack well as he was Ireland's first-ever competitor in Taekwondo at an Olympic Games, and now this terrible attack has happened," Lahart said, reported Ireland's national broadcaster RTE.
"I am calling on senior garda figures [police officers] to take a serious look at the current levels of garda personnel available to police our streets in the wake of this attack," he added.
Authorities are still investigating the incident.
