‘Why would I want to go to national TV and dance?’

Jason Smyth, the six-time Paralympic gold medal-winning sprinter from County Derry, has said that he hopes to inspire others through his performances on RTÉ's 'Dancing with the Stars'.

The Eglinton man has been participating in the hit TV show's new season, which kicked off earlier this year.

Sunday night's edition of the show saw Smyth and his partner, Karen Byrne dance a salsa on “Don’t Stop Dancing” by Olly Murs. The performance earned the duo 18 points.

Earlier this month, Jason spoke to the County Derry Post about his latest gig and his reasons for taking it on.

“I was very unsure if I wanted to do it, I am not a dancer,” he laughed. “I have no dance experience and why would I want to go to national TV and dance?”

Jason, who participated in the T13 disability sport classification as he is recognised as legally blind due to Stargardt’s disease, admits that he had three reasons to participate in ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

“Number one I have two little girls, one is eight and the other one is five. They love to dance. Number two, I really wanted to use it as an opportunity to build awareness of what I can and can't see. 

“I can walk past you in the street and you wouldn't notice any difference from me to anybody else. It's invisible. I thought of this as an opportunity to try to let people step into my world and hopefully help them understand some of the challenges people with visual impairments have or just people with invisible disabilities.

“There's a part of it trying to inspire people, to realise regardless of what challenges you face, you can still do something and do something well. If you have the right attitude about it, you can embrace it and do it well.

“I think the third thing for me was probably a bit of personal development myself. I feel like for you to learn and develop and grow, you have to force yourself out of your comfort zone.

“And, for me, this is out of my comfort zone. Dancing is all about acting and drama, expressing emotions and exaggerating things and that is not me, at all.”

For the duration of 'Dancing with the Stars', Jason has decided to live in Dublin due to the commitment the show demands.

“We basically have a kind of Monday through Friday to learn new dances. And then Saturdays and Sundays are the dress rehearsals and the live shows. It's a far greater commitment than I first expected,” he said.

As the choreographies change every week, participants have to learn new dances.

“Every dance is so different that on Mondays you’re going back to starting from scratch,” he continued.

This new experience comes after his retirement in March 2023 where Jason stopped his sporting career after years competing as a sprint runner. 

Retired at age 37, Jason said he is still looking for goals, and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ allows him to discover something new by going out of his comfort zone.

“It was only ten months ago, and if I'm honest, I still feel like I'm trying to figure it out. As an athlete, I knew exactly what I wanted to achieve,” he stated.

As an athlete, Jason 'could plan how to get better each year'.

“Now all of a sudden I left and I don't know exactly where I want to be in four and five years.  Therefore, it gets harder to know how to plot the path there. I think  a lot of sports people struggle with it because we have such clarity. We're so clear in what we want to do and we're so focused on that and then all of a sudden you step away. 

“I was doing that since I left school, for 18 years, that’s half of my life.”

Now part of Paralympic Ireland, Jason is looking at different angles and has just recently passed his exam as a financial adviser.

 “I am flushing different avenues that I find I'm interested in to see. I suppose what doors open and what opportunities arise through that I learn more about myself and the things I like and dislike.

“I started doing ‘Dancing with the Stars’ which was a completely different angle.

“There are times I keep asking myself like over the first few weeks ‘why did I even decide to do this?” he laughed.

‘Dancing with the Stars’ airs every Sunday at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.