If you’ve grown up watching the Olympics and admiring Olympians then you can’t wait for August to get here. Every 4 years only 15 fortunate and extremely talented softball players from 8 nations get to represent their country. Most of those 15 are first-time Olympians, a few are repeat Olympians but only a very, very rare bread will be what we call 4-timers – those players who will be competing in their 4th Olympic Games in August in Beijing.
Last issue we talked about US Olympian Laura Berg, and today we’ll be looking at Tanya Harding, a 4-timer from Australia and one of the best softball pitchers in the world.
Here’s a quick look at Pitcher and Softball Olympic 4-Timer Tanya Harding:
- Tanya Harding has been ranked in the top five pitchers in the world for almost two decades.
- She’s one of only 2 4-time Olympic Softball players that will be pitching for Australia in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (Former Oklahoma State Cowgirl, Melanie Roche is the other. Melanie is also a former OSU teammate of US pitching great – Michele Smith!)
- During her career Tanya has achieved in excess of 25 National and International awards, as well as one Olympic Silver Medal and two Olympic Bronze Medals, and Silver and Bronze Medal from World Championships.
- Tanya pitched for UCLA where she helped the Bruins win the 1995 National Championship and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
- Tanya put her dream into a plan, put that plan into action and made those actions into achievements. A three time Olympic athlete and an international sportswoman competing at the highest level for the past 15 years; this is a true testament of her work ethic, dedication and commitment to her sport.
- Tanya has a 7 year old daughter in addition to 3 Olympic medals
Tanya also appears on the cover of our pitching book – The Complete Book of Pitching.
If I was to meet Tanya Harding in person, I would ask her to show me her 1995 World Series ring and get her autograph.