Tokyo 2020 Softball - One Month to Go - Jessica Mendoza looking forward to "one of the most competitive" Olympic Games ever

Tokyo 2020 Softball - One Month to Go - Jessica Mendoza looking forward to "one of the most competitive" Olympic Games ever
21/06/2021
Two-time Olympic softball medallist and baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza shared her experience in the Olympic Games and her role as a commentator on the latest edition of the WBSC Podcast - The Global Game.

Two-time Olympic softball medallist Jessica Mendoza told the WBSC Podcast - The Global Game, she believes the softball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics will be "one of the most competitive.

"In the past you felt it was always the US, Australia, Japan are really the competitors for medals and you might get a surprise team but Canada I think they are better than they have ever been with the talent they have from the veterans Danielle Lawrie and Lauren Bay and so much youth coming through," Mendoza said "Gabbie Plain playing with Australia is going to add so much to their older players as well. I'm excited for Mexico, it's where my father's family is from and it's always been a huge baseball country, to see that growth and popularity, I remember seeing that with Venezuela in the last Olympics."

"I wanna see everybody losing and winning," Mendoza added. "I actually expect to see the success of all the teams to show we're getting closer to an even playing field."

Three-time Olympic champions USA have dominated the podium across the four previous editions softball featured at the Olympic Games from 1996 to 2008 with three golds and a silver with Mendoza part of the 2004 gold medal winning team and 2008 runners up line up to Japan. Australia and China are the only other teams to have medalled.

Joining USA, Japan, Australia in Tokyo in one month's time are Canada, who has never missed an edition, three-time participant Italy and debutant Mexico.

June 21 marks one month exactly to the start of the softball competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with hosts Japan taking on Australia at 09:00 local time in Fukushima. Softball will be the first event of the Games, taking place two days before the Opening Ceremony.

Mendoza, 40, will be working the Olympics as an analyst for ESPN and confirmed she would be attending all of the softball games. The Stanford University grad has some key advice for all the athletes playing a part in softball's return to the Olympic Games since Beijing 2008.

"Embrace it, there will be nerves and a tonne of pressure with everything having been squeezed after one year of anticipation into 2021, knowing that the Olympics won't be back until 2028. So there is that pressure that you feel. It's about seeing pressure is a privilege, quoting Billie Jean King. You are one of a few, you get to be there. Embrace it, feel it and take all the feels, the excitement, the failures, all of it. It's a privilege to be in that position."

Softball's return to the Olympic Games means "everything" added Mendoza. "Especially there is some sort of silver lining that fact that it will be in Japan. When we lost that gold medal game in 2008 it was to Japan and it was the last time softball was in the Olympics you have this long length of time and you don't know if it's going to comeback and of course, when it will return it will be in Japan. So there is a special full circle, at least on the softball side of things you feel like it was meant to be."

She also gave great insight into her Olympic memories on the podcast. In Athens, the experience started with a tragedy, the death of coach Mike Candrea's wife. "There was a lot of magic, it was special and a part of that was in tragedy but we were able to bond and gain perspective as a real family," said Mendoza.

She believes it was one of the reasons why the United States dominated the tournament: "When you go through something like that together, it definitely helps you to understand the people you are playing softball with."

Beijing was definitely a different memory altogether for the softball legend.

"You don't win silver," Mendoza said, mentioning the fact that earning a 2nd-place silver medal means losing gold. "It still plays in your mind as a loss."

In a change of codes, Mendoza is now a professional baseball analyst, and she was on the broadcasting team when ESPN aired Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) games in April 2020. "April 2020 was such a crazy time," Mendoza told host Tyler Maun. "You were not even going to the grocery store."

KBO was the first professional sports event ESPN put on the air following the COVID-19 shutdown. "I was in Oregon. My broadcast partner was in Chicago," Mendoza recalled. She said the unique set-up was nonetheless "incredible" and "powerful."

The Global Game