Commitment and dedication are familiar to Jacqueline Galloway who has been achieving her goals since a young age. Growing up Taekwondo was a whole family event that both of her parents and brother were involved in and she was eager to start.
“They made me wait until I was seven so that way I could say this is something I really want to do, and then at that point, they just wanted me to commit to seeing it through to at least black belt,” said Galloway.
With her dad coaching and her brother as her training partner, she was 14 years old when she made her first national team and 16 when she made the first US National Team, the first steps in being able to compete in the World Championships or the Olympics.
“We trained at the Olympic center in Mexico City, and it was so funny, I was a freshman in high school still, and they said you have to come move to Mexico City, and then you’re going to China for a month and then to Korea for another two weeks,” said Galloway “I was like, ‘I have freshman finals; I’m in high school,’ but that was the start of my high-level career competing in Taekwondo.”
Galloway’s unique approach to how she views Taekwondo led her to another passion: engineering.
“I’ve viewed it as a game of chess; it’s very strategic, especially for the weight division that I am in, which is the heavy weight, but I’m not particularly tall for the international competition. So, I have to be really strategic with how I approach each different competitor, because they have such different body types. That has also fed into why I love mechanical engineering; it’s a physical problem that you’re looking at, and you have to solve with abstract ideas. That is the same way I view Taekwondo.”
Galloway says it was natural for her to take the next step after graduating high school to attend the college of engineering to achieve her academic goals. Galloway was accepted to UNT’s Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering degree program and is currently a senior.
“It has been great, because I can still train here and my coach – my dad – lives here locally in Flower Mound. It has been the most convenient all around. It meets all the criteria for the degree I wanted as well as still be accommodating to my training schedule.”
While studying mechanical and energy engineering at UNT, she was able to achieve one of her goals in Taekwondo of competing in the Rio 2016 Olympics and winning a bronze medal in the Women’s Heavyweight Taekwondo 67+kg Division.
“It was such a surreal feeling, because, for me, the medal itself was just an accumulation of every kick I have thrown and every injury. I had to have surgery on my hand; I’ve broken it twice, but leading up to Rio, it was just an accumulation of every single decision I have made and everyone else that has helped me along the way,” said Galloway. “It was just representative of all that emotion into one moment; it was just so emotional.”
Galloway is not stopping here, even her current injury of a torn Achilles tendon is not keeping her from reaching her next big goals: competing in next year’s World Championships and the Pan Am Games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, as well as graduating UNT with her Mechanical and Energy Engineering degree.
“This is where I grew up. Texas, the DFW area, Denton – this is my home. So, when I am representing USA, I have that in the back of my mind that I am representing my home, my school, and my family, so it really is a direct connection for me,” said Galloway. “Just the fact I grew up here and this is my home – that’s what makes me bleed green.”
Cover Image by Simon Bruty for Sports Illustrated
Inset Image by Erin Allice