Jackson Olson

Jackson Daniel Olson is an American baseball player, entertainer and social media personality. He plays second base for the Savannah Bananas, the exhibition club whose Banana Ball format has drawn sellout crowds and a national following, and in 2025 he joined the cast of ABC's Dancing with the Stars for its 35th season, partnered with pro Emma Slater.

His profile rests on two audiences that rarely overlap. On the field he is a showman inside a choreographed, comedy-driven game; online he reaches roughly 2.3 million TikTok followers and about a million on Instagram with behind-the-scenes clips and comedic bits. The DWTS booking pushed him toward a general entertainment audience, and he remains active with the Bananas while that run continues to shape his public identity in 2026. [edit]

Olson was born on October 6, 1997, in the United States and grew up playing conventional baseball before the Savannah Bananas existed as a serious option for a college infielder. He began his collegiate career at the University of Hartford, then transferred to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he enrolled as a graduate student in the school's MBA program. The Stetson roster listed him at 6 feet 2 inches and 195 pounds, batting left-handed and throwing right-handed, which is the profile of a utility infielder rather than a power bat.

Stetson is where the record gets specific. He was an infielder on a program with a long baseball tradition, and his time there came after the transfer rather than as a four-year starter. The jump to the Bananas was not a jump to affiliated professional baseball: the team operates outside Major League Baseball's structure, and joining it meant accepting a role that combined infield defense with scripted entertainment. That choice is the hinge of his career. A conventional minor-league path would have kept him anonymous; the Bananas put him in front of crowds and cameras.

By the time he became a recognizable face, he had already spent years in the less visible parts of the game, and the transition from college roster player to exhibition performer is the moment just before his breakthrough. [edit]

Olson's breakthrough came with the Savannah Bananas, where he became one of the team's most visible players as a second baseman and on-field entertainer in the Banana Ball Championship League. The format rewards personality as much as production, and he built a parallel following posting behind-the-scenes and comedic content to TikTok and Instagram. The Bananas' traveling showcase turned him into a recognizable figure well beyond Georgia.

The mainstream step arrived with the announcement that he would compete on Season 35 of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with pro Emma Slater. The pair danced a Quickstep to Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E" in Week 6 and appeared in the season's Dedication Night episode. The casting made sense given his performance background, and it moved him from sports-adjacent celebrity to network television contestant. He has continued with the Bananas while the show has run, keeping both strands of the career active into 2026. [edit]

Olson's public image is built on the contrast between a conventional athlete's build and an entertainer's instincts. At 6 feet 2 inches he looks like a middle infielder, but his content is comedic and loose, with skits, behind-the-scenes footage and the kind of self-deprecating clips that play well on TikTok. On Dancing with the Stars the show framed him as the athlete learning choreography, a familiar arc that gave viewers a reason to root for him beyond the Bananas audience.

His social voice is casual and frequent. The Instagram bio names both the Savannah Bananas and DWTS Season 35, which tells you how he wants to be categorized: a ballplayer who happens to be on television, not a television personality who used to play. Media coverage tends to describe him as a showman first, and he has leaned into that rather than resisting it. [edit]

iFANN has not yet collected fame data for Jackson Olson, so no ranking is published for him as of the October 2026 data cycle. He is also not on the September 2026 iFAMOUS Rankings flagship list. His visibility instead comes from two specific places: the Savannah Bananas' traveling showcase, which sells out parks and draws a family crowd, and the ABC audience that met him on Dancing with the Stars Season 35.

The fanbase has no formal name and no documented organized campaigns. What exists is informal: Banana Ball crowds who follow players by name, TikTok viewers who found him through short clips, and DWTS viewers who vote week to week. His engagement style matches that, posting frequently and directly rather than through a management voice. The result is an audience that is large but not institutionalized, closer to a general following than a fandom with rituals. [edit]

Olson throws right but bats left, a combination that shaped how coaches used him as an infielder. His college listing at Stetson put him at 195 pounds, and he was enrolled in the MBA program there rather than a standard undergraduate major. The name causes confusion online: a separate Jackson Olson played college baseball as a minor infielder, and search results for the two occasionally mix.

A story fans retell is that his Bananas persona was built as much in the content studio as on the diamond, with the social clips doing the work of a scouting report. He is also one of the few Banana Ball players to cross into a network reality competition while still on the roster. His Week 6 Quickstep to "L-O-V-E" is the dance clip most often shared by DWTS viewers discovering him for the first time. [edit]

Olson has kept his family largely out of the public record. No parents or siblings are documented in reliable sources, and he has not discussed his household in interviews covered by the outlets that report on him. What is known is that he grew up in the United States and moved through college baseball at Hartford and then Stetson, a path that typically involves family support but no public footprint. As of 2026 he has not announced a marriage or children, and he lives without a documented family arrangement in the press. [edit]

Emma Slater (Dancing with the Stars partner), the Savannah Bananas organization, and the Banana Ball Championship League. [edit]

Public sources do not document any confirmed romantic relationship for Olson. Searches for "Jackson Olson girlfriend" and "Is Jackson Olson in a relationship?" are common, but no credible outlet reports a partner, and he has not confirmed one himself. His most prominent public pairing is professional: Emma Slater, his dance partner on Dancing with the Stars Season 35, with whom he trains and performs but shares no confirmed romance.

As of 2026, the record indicates he is single and not publicly linked to anyone. Any claim of a girlfriend should be treated as unconfirmed. [edit]

No outlet in the available record publishes a verified net worth for Olson, and the figures that circulate online are unsourced. Working from his known income streams, the iFANN Editorial Team's analysis points to roughly $2 Million as of 2026. The main components are his contract with the Savannah Bananas, appearance and content revenue tied to his social accounts, and the fee and exposure that come with a network reality television booking.

The Bananas pay structure is not public, but the team's business model depends on touring and merchandise, and recognizable players benefit from both. His TikTok account, with about 2.3 million followers, and Instagram, with about a million, create sponsorship inventory that a conventional minor leaguer would not have. The DWTS run adds a discrete payday and, more importantly, a national audience that raises his rate for appearances.

Growth over the next few years depends on whether he converts the television exposure into longer-term deals. For now the estimate reflects a young athlete-entertainer with a strong social footprint and no major endorsement portfolio on record. [edit]