Olympic medallists Natalie Hodgskin, Belinda Barnes inducted into Softball Australia Hall of Fame

Olympic medallists Natalie Hodgskin, Belinda Barnes inducted into Softball Australia Hall of Fame
12/10/2020
Both players represented Softball Australia at the Olympic Games, Hodgskin winning silver at the 2004 Athens Games, while Barnes was a member of the bronze medal winning Beijing 2008 squad.

Natalie Hodgskin (nee Shapiro) and Belinda Barnes (nee Wright) have been inducted into the Softball Australia Hall of Fame, following the organisation’s Annual General Meeting Saturday, 10 October.

Both players represented Softball Australia at the Olympic Games, Hodgskin winning silver at the 2004 Athens Games, while Barnes was a member of the bronze medal winning Beijing 2008 squad.

Hodgskin made her national team debut in 1997 at the Qantas Challenge and went on to play 23 international tournaments including the 2002 ISF World Championship and 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

The Queenslander played 160 games for the Aussie Spirit between 1997 and 2004. She was a standout in the Queensland system, attending the University of Queensland on a Sports Scholarship where she picked up a Sportswoman of the Year Award in 1997.

Hodgskin was inducted into the Softball Queensland Hall of Fame in 2010.

Barnes made her Aussie Spirit debut in the 2001 Trans-Tasman Challenge, the first of her 34 international tournaments for Australia.

A speedy outfielder, Barnes made 224 appearances for the Aussie Spirit, highlighted by the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, after playing a reserve role for Australia in 2004 in Athens.