Savannah Bananas second baseman Jackson Olson has one person to thank for his competition run on Dancing With the Stars – his better half, Maggie Sajak.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I did that whole experience alone,” Olson, 29, who competed in season 35 of the hit reality TV series alongside pro Emma Slater, exclusively told Us on Saturday, November 14, while walking the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards red carpet at Television Studio City in Los Angeles.
“I really don’t,” he continued. “Because every single time I would get done with the show and I would see Maggie in my trailer, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, we can debrief. We can go back to normal immediately.’ And I think that if it wasn’t for Maggie, I might have just stayed in bed for that entire season and not been able to be, like, ‘Let’s just talk about something else right now.’”
He added of his girlfriend’s encouragement, “So having her support was literally everything.”
Olson was sent packing from the ballroom on October 27 after a shocking double-elimination during Horror Movie Night alongside Tyler Cameron and pro Sharna Burgess.
While the Savannah Bananas star walked away from the competition without the coveted Mirrorball Trophy, he scored the ultimate prize when he started dating Sajak, 31 — the daughter of famed Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak — in April.
“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 back in May of the pair’s long-distance romance. “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.”
Since going public with their relationship, Olson has peeled back the curtain on his private life — including the first time met his girlfriend’s famous father.
“I have [met Pat Sajak], he’s a great guy,” Olson exclusively told Us back in and after he was asked about meeting the retired Wheel of Fortune host, 80. “Everybody’s nervous to meet the father of the person they’re dating, or mother or both.”
Now that big family member meetings are behind him and Olson has been eliminated from the competition, the athlete gave an update on his overall mindset after leaving competitive ballroom dancing behind — for now.
“I’m definitely more relaxed right now after being eliminated,” he told Us on Saturday. “They’re learning two dances now every single week. I said it before, but I was like, ‘Back in my day, we were doing once danced, three weeks ago, but they’re learning two!’”
The second baseman also dished to Us who he thinks will walk away victorious this season.
“My pick to win is Ezra [Frech],” he said. “So, that’s my pick. Even when I was on the show, I was like, ‘I feel like you might win it.’”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
