Savannah Bananas athlete Jackson Olson will trade the outfield for the Dancing With the Stars ballroom floor — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“When I was a kid, I never thought any of this was possible, even playing for the Bananas or anything like that,” Olson, 28, said on the Wednesday, May 13, broadcast of Good Morning America. “I was a shy kid that never danced, never put myself out there, never entertained and found a passion for it. Now, I kind of manifested it.”
News broke on Tuesday, May 12, that Olson will be among the mirrorball hopefuls on DWTS season 35, which is slated to kick off this fall.
“[I] posted a couple TikToks last year, just joking, ‘Pranking my coach that I was going to be on the show,’ never thinking it was a possibility,” Olson quipped on GMA. “When I posted it, I’m, like, ‘Maybe there is a possibility.’ I saw some comments and thought, ‘Maybe this is possible.’”
Olson, a baseball player on the viral Bananas team, will compete against the likes of reality TV stars Maura Higgins and Ciara Miller on season 35. The rest of the casting lineup has yet to be announced.
Just as everyone surely has their eyes on the mirrorball, Olson’s girlfriend, Maggie Sajak, is already sharing her support for his quest.
“Beyond proud of you @jacksonolson_ ,” Sajak, 31, gushed via her Instagram Stories. “The dance floor better get ready.”
Olson announced last month that he recently started dating former Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak’s daughter.
“It’s really cool because we’re obviously living very different lives right now on the opposite side of the country, but we’re able to come together and just have an awesome relationship,” Olson exclusively told Us Weekly earlier in May. “I feel like in any relationship, you’re trying to figure out how to see each other as frequently as possible, which is never something that I thought in my past I was going to want to do … but now I really do.”
He continued, “It’s just about planning and making sure you’re setting aside time to see each other and make really cool experiences happen because a start of a relationship never happens again. You only get one chance at a start of a relationship.”
Olson further beamed with pride after Maggie attended one of his Bananas games.
“I start sweating and I’m like, ‘I can’t strike out because then I have to hit a home run.’ Even though I do strike out a decent amount,” Olson told Us. “I’ve gotten that out of the way of, like, the nerves there. Every person that I care about in my life has seen me play with the Bananas now, so it’s smooth sailing. If I play poorly, whatever, it’s life. We’re not playing for a World Series here.”
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