Harry Garside has the drive – and a secret weapon – to compete in Dancing With The Stars

Olympics boxer Harry Garside talks of loss, his fear of slipping back into substance abuse after an overdose – and how he may have a secret weapon when entering Dancing With The Stars.

Harry Garside was worried he’d hit rock bottom after the Paris Olympics – and it’s a place he never wants to go again.

The Bondi-based boxer was there in March of 2020 when he failed to make the Asia & Oceania Boxing Olympic qualification tournament and, for the first time, has revealed he used substances to numb his pain, and overdosed in an attempt to hurt himself.

“No one really knows this, but there’s nothing that I really hold shame about anymore,” the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and Olympic bronze medallist says.

“I failed to make the 2020 Olympics, just before Covid hit.

“So it was March 2020, and I had two opportunities. I was highly rated, I was expected to qualify, and I didn’t qualify.

Olympic Boxer Harry Garside at Bondi Beach. Picture: Richard Dobson

“And it was one of the most heartbreaking, distraught moments of my life.

“Then I came back to Melbourne and we were in hardcore lockdown, and I was using substance to sort of numb myself.

Harry Garside has admitted, after failing to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, he was using substance “to sort of numb myself”.

“I was trying to hurt myself, to be completely honest. I actually overdosed in that time.

“And I think (in) that post-match interview, post-Paris, I was really scared that was going to happen again.

“I was really scared that the same pattern was going to happen because it meant so much to me – but it didn’t happen this time.

“And I think that is a testament to myself.

“It’s really nice to see I’ve grown and I’ve evolved, and I don’t have the same level of torture to myself when things don’t go how I thought they would.

“I looked after myself a lot more this year, and I’m proud of myself for that. Yes, there were some hard weeks.

“There are still some hard times, but it wasn’t like it was in 2020 and in that I can see growth. I can see maturity.

“I can see that I’m being the person I’m growing into, the person that I want to be, which I’m proud of.”

The second Asia qualifiers were cancelled due to Covid, and at the start of 2021 Garside was given a spot in the Tokyo Olympics based on his international ranking.

“I didn’t actually earn it, which is a weird feeling, but that’s how I managed to get to Tokyo,” he says of the Games that saw him bring home bronze – and the personal promise he made to himself that it would be gold in Paris.

Harry Garside cops a right to the face from Hungary’s Richard Kovacs in his first round loss in Paris. Picture: Michael Klein

Instead, in Paris came a first-round Olympic loss, and the weeks that followed his public pain were “tough”, which is “understandable”, he admits. It was made harder by being charged with domestic violence-related common assault against former girlfriend Ashley Ruscoe – a charge which was dropped, with Ruscoe pleading guilty to common assault and intimidation in December, over an incident at her Bellevue Hill home in March of 2023.

Ruscoe, 36, was sentenced to a 12-month conditional release order without a conviction.

“I couldn’t fully get through it, if that makes sense, because there was always something going on in the background,” he says of the ordeal. “But I was pretty much 90 per cent through it, and I think now that it’s officially done, I can officially 100 per cent get through it. So I’m just happy it’s done.

“I learned a lot in that process, and 2023 was the year that I turned from a boy into a man, which I think is a pretty special moment in some weird, messed up way.

“It was so messed up and so hard – but then, also, I got myself (through it) and, in that, I’m very happy.

“When you’re fully through something, you can look back and think, ‘Wow, that was probably the best thing to ever happen’ – I definitely wasn’t thinking that – I was just more so happy that it’s fully done and I can just focus on life and my goals, my ambitions and other things.”

The day of this interview, he had ridden 100km for fun before racing to the airport to catch a plane to Melbourne, where his family is from. He’s hopeful to meet his new partner for Dancing With The Stars – a big part of his determination to make 2025 his best year yet.

Harry Garside at Bondi Beach with his dance partner Siobhan Power, ahead of his appearance on an upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I did I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and I said there’s probably two or three other TV shows that I would consider, and Dancing was definitely top of the list,” he says.

“So I’m stoked. Like, you get paid to learn how to dance, and then get thrown out of your comfort zone and try and dance. I’ve done a bit of ballet but, even still, I’m very much a novice and I’m so excited to learn how to dance.

“I’ve spoken to my (Dancing) partner, she seems like a bloody legend, so I’m stoked, right? What an opportunity. And I’m very competitive, so I want to win,” he laughs.

Garside has always done things his way. From wearing nail polish at the 2020 Olympics to defy gender stereotypes and support the LGBTQIA+ community, to walking in fashion shows or taking ballet lessons, it’s all about experience.

“I’ve always had this weird, sick fixation on chasing things that make me feel alive,” he says.

“And I’ve never really done a performance – obviously, boxing is an element of performing – but I’ve never had that feeling that performing arts people talk about before a dance or before a show, or something like that, so I’m terrified.

“But also, that’s literally my whole ethos.

Harry Garside, in a Crew By Bondi Perfume Co campaign, has always done things his way..

“Going to the place you feel most in your body that you’re most alive. Who knows, I might get addicted to it and drop boxing and start dancing full time,” he laughs.

“I’ve always said to myself, boxing is very primitive, and it’s very archaic, and it’s an energy release, and dancing, I think, is exactly the same,” he continues.

“It’s very primitive, it’s just at a different frequency. If any proper ballerina watched me do ballet, they’d laugh.

“I’m very average. I’ve probably done maybe like 40 or 50 classes in my life in the space of maybe five years, so I’ve never really done it consistently enough to know what I’m doing, and I was also just doing it because it actually does absolutely help the boxing.

“We’ll soon find out when I start dancing if there are any benefits between the ballet to, like, ballroom and Latin, but it might be a little hidden tool.”

Dancing With The Stars is just one piece of the Garside puzzle for the new year – but it’s one he’s excited for.

Dancing With The Stars is just one piece of the Garside puzzle for the new year. Picture: Richard Dobson

“Every year, consciously and a bit subconsciously, I’m always thinking about how my year was, and this time last year I visualised very different things for myself,” he says.

“And there is an element absolutely of – I didn’t meet my expectations in some areas.

“But then also, I know I feel like I just got closer to myself this year. And naturally, as well, I’m only 27, so I think, actually, I matured a bit more, I learned a lot more. I had some pretty hardcore lessons that I needed to learn.

“Overall, my year didn’t turn out how I wanted but I learned more and, in that, I’m very happy.”

But it’s taken a lot for him to get there – and get back into the ring after Paris.

“It’s such a hard pill to swallow … I pondered this a lot, like why do I have such a hardcore expectation of myself?” he says.

“And I’ve realised a lot of high performers are trying to get the attention of someone. Maybe my parents or I’m just living that – so I think high expectation is good – it always makes me grow and evolve and get bigger and better.

“But as long as I set big, audacious goals and I grow into a better version, then I think I’m happy. But I never want to stop and not set that big goal and give it my all.

Harry Garside in Paris, where “my year didn’t turn out how I wanted but I learned more and, in that, I’m very happy.”

“So my relationship with success has changed, I think, which is nice. Post-Paris, I said to myself, I refuse to go to a boxing gym until there’s a young kid calling me and really sort of demanding that I go there, just because I feel like I lost that.

“I feel like my whole life, I wanted to be at the boxing gym. If I wasn’t at the boxing gym at 4.30am then something was wrong – it was just part of me. And I think I lost that between the two Olympics.

“Three months went by and, in that time, I felt lost. I felt I didn’t know what to do, I lost a bit of my identity. And there’s so many other avenues – I’m like, ‘What do I do now?’

“But I’m really grateful that, after about three months, there was this young kid calling me to go. So I think definitely next year, there will 100 per cent be some boxing.

“I don’t know where it will be – it could just be for fun. It could just be for myself.

“I’m also just grateful that I have that.”

Outside of boxing, he’s been exploring breath work and has become a qualified instructor, which is “pretty wild”, if you ask him.

“I don’t know if I would ever use it, but there’s something inside of me going down that sort of more spirituality type side of myself,” he continues. “My mum is a medium – not that I would ever do mediumship – but she does talk to dead people, so it’s always in my body, I think.

“But I’m excited – 2024 wasn’t the year that I thought it would be, but I’m just more excited for 2025. It’s a new year.

“I’m 27, so I’m still under 30. I’m still learning, still evolving so much at 27.”

His Olympic dream was shattered in nine minutes but helping kids like himself may be his new purpose. Picture: Instagram

Garside first started boxing at the age of nine. He needed a purpose. And helping kids like him may just be his new one.

“There’s a good quote: ‘Be the adult your younger self would have needed’ – and I think the one thing that I love about young people is I can recognise in myself, inside myself and inside most humans, we’re so complex, and there’s so many different versions of myself,” he says.

“And I think I connect with a lot of young people because of that. I love when you get a message or something like that from a mum or from a young person … it’s really nice. It definitely makes me proud and happy.

“And I think the position that I’m going in now is trying to teach young people, especially, that they have agency and autonomy over their decisions and they know their life better than anyone else.

“And they can take little pieces of inspiration from my life or anyone else’s life, but at the end of the day, it is their life, and they made the decisions, and owning their power in that which is really cool.

“That’s definitely something that my parents gave me, which I really like.”

Harry Garside with his mum, Kate.

Growing up in Victoria, the youngest of three boys, with mother Kate and father Shaun, Garside admits he took on a lot of adult stress which affected him as he developed.

“I think as young people … we’re quite narcissistic by nature, because we were very vulnerable, which I think we have to be,” he says. “And when our parents are stressed, we sort of take it on, like it’s our fault, or our parents split up … and sometimes people internalise that, like it’s their fault.

“I think I very much internalised a lot of my parents’ stresses that had nothing to do with me.

“My parents very much supported me and love me, and I just think I struggled to see that when I was younger.

“But over the last 23 or 24 years, I’ve very much grown into a more aware person, which I think is really nice and then, in that, I’ve cut my parents a bit more slack, and just realising this is also their first time at life, and they’re just trying their best, and they were struggling when I was younger.

“They always supported me and always gave me opportunities.”

Boxing made Garside who he is. And while that is a constant evolution, he’ll always be grateful for that.

The big wide world outside the ring is an exciting prospect. “Who knows, I might get addicted to it and drop boxing and start dancing full time.” Picture: Richard Dobson

But today, the big wide world outside the ring is an exciting prospect.

“For almost 20 years of my life, I boxed and I absolutely love it, but it’s like not even one per cent of what the human potential has to offer,” he says.

“If I wanted to, I could meditate for the rest of my life or become a monk, or if I wanted to become a chef – we have the luxury of being anything in Australia.

“I don’t have kids yet – this is the time to literally try anything. That’s one thing I really do like about myself. I will try anything. If I don’t like it, then I won’t do it again, but if I do like it, then I’ll continue doing it, right?

“There’s a lot (I haven’t tried).

“I’m terrible at golf … I live so close to the beach, and I haven’t really picked up surfing – there’s a lot I want to do.”

Catch Harry on Dancing With The Stars later this year on Seven

Originally published as Harry Garside has the drive – and a secret weapon – to compete in Dancing With The Stars