Canadian softball expert Victoria Hayward has actually completed with 4 Olympic cycles– yet she’s just played in one.
And so as softball returns for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the 33-year-old Toronto indigenous is still taking a big-picture sight. The sporting activity has actually just gotten on the Olympic program when given that 2008, when the Tokyo Olympics included it for the 2020 Games, where Hayward completed.
“I think the mission to grow our sport has to be bigger than just doing it for that world stage,” stated Hayward, that signed up with the nationwide group as a 16-year-old in 2009 however needed to enjoy the 2012, 2016 and 2024 Olympics from afar.
Hayward’s goal proceeds Saturday when she will certainly wear for opening up day of the most recent Athletes Unlimited Softball League period. The competitors initially started in 2020 with a fantasy-style, athlete-centred style– currently, it’s back for its initial go-round as a much more conventional, team-focused professional organization.
“Our goal is to have women be professional softball players and that requires more games, that requires that traditional model and so we’re creeping closer and closer toward that and that’s something we’re definitely really proud of as a league,” Hayward stated.
Hayward became part of the initial team of gamers that completed at an area in Rosemont, Ill., in 2020 in an effort to attract rate of interest for their sporting activity in advance of the Tokyo Olympics.
Since its creation, Athletes Unlimited has actually broadened to consist of beach ball and basketball, with both embracing the player-first racking up style.
Now, softball has actually come to be the initial to branch off right into the even more conventional version, including 4 interplay 24 video games each throughout 10 cities. Hayward was prepared to a group called the Talons.
Former Miami Marlins basic supervisor and long time MLB exec Kim Ng came aboard as commissioner in April, and one month later on MLB introduced a calculated collaboration with the organization.
“It’s really a testament to all of the work that every generation of professional softball players has done to increase visibility, to really just put our sport on the map in a way that MLB recognizes its value, recognizes its potential and wants to be a part of it,” Hayward, that invested 3 years from 2020 to 2022 on the AU board, stated.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred stated the organization was “really excited” regarding the financial investment.
“We thought rather than starting on our own and competing, that finding a place where we could invest and grow a business was a better opportunity for us,” Manfred stated.
For Hayward, the collaboration stands for a large action towards developing that lasting professional atmosphere like basketball gamers have in the WNBA, football gamers have in the NWSL and NSL, and hockey gamers have in the PWHL.
She stated AU has actually gotten guidance from some the WNBA gamers that invest their off-season in the organization.
“Once you kind of receive that [MLB] stamp of approval things can really take off, and I think that’s really exciting,” Hayward stated.
Hayward included that the organization had actually intended to begin in 2020 with a typical version, however it was required to pivot because of different pandemic limitations.
For this period, AU will certainly keep several of its old version in the type of a season-ending All-Star Cup, a month-long competitors in August complying with the normal period.
“To see it come full circle and to have the opportunity to have a team, to be able to create new beginnings and just lay the foundation for it to be built upon is really awesome,” Hayward stated.
Meanwhile, the timing of the MLB financial investment lands at the start of a quadrennial, establishing the sporting activity to develop energy in advance of its go back to the Olympics in 3 years– and possibly persuade Brisbane 2032 coordinators that is need to be consisted of there, also.
Additionally, AU must aid professional athletes remain sharp competitively before that competitors, Hayward stated.
“The athletes within this league are the absolute best of the best and now with a model that we’re going to play a lot more games and we’re going to be exposed to that high-level competition day in and day out and just be around the best softball players in the world, as a competitor training to be in that world stage at the Olympics, that’s all you can ask for,” Hayward stated.
As for Team Canada, Hayward is the only Canuck signed up for this period ofAthletes Unlimited She stated she wishes even more Canadians will certainly take part future years.
But Hayward, that hasn’t completed on the nationwide group given that 2022, stated she does not expect belonging to the Olympic lineup.
“I’ll never say never. A lot can change. As of right now, I do not plan on being part of the national team at that time, but stranger things have happened than for somebody to come out of retirement to compete at the Olympic games,” she stated. “I would love to be involved in some capacity.”
She attributed previous gamer and present nationwide group head train Kaleigh Rafter for connecting the void towards the future generation of Canadian softball gamers that will certainly aim to build on Hayward and business’s Tokyo bronze medal.
“Most people only want to be in when the Olympics are in and I’m really proud of our country for wanting to be consistent and continue to grow and I think then when you get into a cycle when the Olympics is back, I think there’s a renewed sense of purpose,” Hayward stated.
Indeed, Hayward’s objective is clear as a freshened and restored AU readies for initial pitch.
