Three-time Australian Olympic medallist Brooke Wilkins-Penfold: 'Softball has a good chance of being in the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games'

Becoming an Olympic medallist is a remarkable achievement for any athlete, in any sport or discipline. To be a three-time Olympic medallist places you in an exclusive and elite group of athletes who have made their mark on Olympic history. This is the case for Brooke Wilkins-Penfold, who played for the Australian Women's National Softball Team for over a decade. During her career, she secured bronze medals at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Olympics, along with a historic silver medal at the Athens 2004 Games.

Wilkins-Penfold was part of the golden age of international women's softball. Born on 6 June 1974, she had the luxury of enjoying her prime during those 12 consecutive years in which softball was part of the Olympic sports programme, starting in Atlanta 1996 and concluding in Beijing 2008. 

"For me, I think the Olympics kind of just happened. You play the sport because you love the sport. It's a team sport. You have made lots of friends and you get to travel different places. And when you get picked in the Australian team and we were heading to the first ever Olympics in Atlanta, it was quite exciting because it was the unknown. You watch the Olympics on TV and then, when you have the opportunity, it's quite exciting," she said during an interview with WBSC.org. "I think the sport gets a bit of a boost from behind and more involvement. Young kids want to keep playing it when they see people on TV playing it and they get to have idols."

When asked about her memories of the three Olympic Games, Wilkins-Penfold described each experience as exciting and unique.

"We went to the Atlanta Olympics in the U.S. very big crowd chanting USA all the time. So that was pressure. Then we had a home Olympics in Sydney, which was really exciting because family and friends got to go and it was on our home soil. And then going to Athens, which is the home of the Olympics. So that was, you are getting a look at the tradition, so you are going to play softball, but you're also learning about the places that you go to and you're meeting other players and people," she said.

In regards to picking a favorite moment in particular, Wilkins-Penford found it hard to choose just one.

"The memories are very vast. No one really stands out, although I would say Atlanta being the first Olympics and standing on the dice and getting a bronze and looking down the row at your team, that's a big memory. Our 1996 team still have reunions every couple of years. We'll get together and spend a weekend together because we've never forgotten that."

Olympics at home

A native of Sydney, Brooke experienced a special moment in 2000 with the Olympic Games being played on home soil. "A home Olympics is always special. People in your home country get to see multiple sports at the highest level and the community gets involved. So you have your volunteers and you have people that come in from other countries to volunteer. So having a Sydney Olympics was quite spectacular," she said.

The Sydney 2000 Games represented softball's second Olympic appearance, a run that lasted until Beijing 2008. Asked about the softball event, she talked about the Blacktown Olympic Park, a spectacular venue that hosted the entire competition. "We had a great, great venue, next to the baseball field. The competition was strong, everyone loved it. The crowds were amazing. It was pretty special the Sydney Olympics being home."

The Blacktown Softball Centre features four softball diamonds, including the 1,100-seat Olympic Stadium, with the baseball stadium situated directly behind it. The complex also includes soccer fields, a field hockey area, and a cricket field, making it a significant sports hub.

Wilkins-Pelford said that the venue is still used for weekly night trainings for state teams, and as a competition venue for softball throughout the year. "The venue still looks good. It's still usable. We play men's and women's events there. So yeah, we have a lot of events, which is great because it has had a legacy since it was built specifically for the Sydney Olympics and we've used it continuously."

The Sydney 2000 Games confirmed that softball deserves a place in the Olympics and can thrive in many countries around the world. "Talking about softball, I think the rolling on from Atlanta 1996 into Sydney 2000 just kept boosting the sport and growing the sport across the world,” said Wilkins-Pelford. “It would be great to unfold the same process from LA 28 to Brisbane 2032."

Brisbane 2032

Two days before the 2020 Olympic Games' Opening Ceremony, Brisbane was selected as the host city for the 2032 Olympics during the International Olympic Committee's 138th Session in Tokyo.

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania with over 2.7 million people, marks the next milestone in softball's Olympic journey.

"I think softball has a good chance of being in the 2032 games," Wilkins-Penfold declared. "I do think if we lose this on that world scale, we are not actually showing how good our athletes and our players are. They train hard, they're very good at what they do. Why not be able to showcase it at an Olympic games? And my view is it should have always been in, it should never have gone out."

Brooke has been part of some of the most significant moments in international softball history, but she also endured its darkest days, such as when the sport was excluded from the Olympics in London 2012 and Rio 2016. "It stops you when you lose it, you lose the momentum. And I think we lost the momentum with it being out, and it's a lot of work to try and get it back in again. And it's doing a lot of work to try and get it at its pinnacle. So the momentum going up and down all the time is very, very difficult to keep that growth and the pathway happening.

"I think the sport, it has its place in the Olympics. I think it's a very challenging, highly skilled game. And I do believe that there are some really quality athletes out there that you get to see put all their work and effort on that field and come out on top. So I do think it had its place. I'm so excited when it got put into LA and then we've just got to get that roll on for 2032 into Brisbane."

USA vs Australia rivalry

Australia has history and tradition within the women's softball scene, becoming a superpower of the sport in its early years. Affiliated to the then International Softbal Federation (ISF) in 1953, Softball Australia hosted the first Women's Softball World Cup in Melbourne, where they would become the first-ever world champions. Since then, they have gone on to win a total of eight medals.

The Australian national softball team, known for their green and gold uniforms, has a profound connection to Olympic softball history. They have participated in all five Olympic Games that featured softball, securing four medals.

Australia and the USA have built a fierce, hard-fought rivalry throughout Olympic history, engaging in numerous intense matchups and creating some of the most memorable moments in softball history. This rivalry remains strong, with their thrilling and dramatic duels often decided by fewer than three runs.

Wilkins-Penfold recognised USA as being leaders of the sport, always bringing out the best in the Australian team. Two of the greatest games in Olympic history featured match-ups between Australia and USA.

In Atlanta 1996, USA had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the 10th by scoring the tie-break runner from second base, leaving the game in the hands of their ace Lisa Fernandez, who had pitched 9 perfect innings. Fernandez retired the first two batters and was one strike away from completing the perfect game. However, with a 0-2 count, Jo Brown smashed a two-run walk-off homer over the center field fence to give Australia (and softball as a whole) one of the biggest moments in the history of the sport.

"You need to stay in the battle, and we just wanted to stay in the battle. As long as we kept in the game, there was always a chance," Brooke said. "It takes one pitch, one hit and, to change the game. So we went in there knowing that we just had to stay in it, stay in it for as long as we could. Keep challenging, keep fighting for it, and it could go our way." 

A similar story was written four years later, this time in Sydney. The game went scorelss until the 13th inning, until Christie Ambrosi's RBI single in the top of the 13th gave USA a 1-0 lead. Fernandez, who had struck out 25 and gave up just two hits, again retired the first two batters in the bottom half of the inning before Peta Edebone belted an unforgettable walk-off home run over the left-field wall to give her team a 2-1 win and send the Australian crowd into a frenzy.

"The USA have always been the powerhouse have always been the team that we've always wanted to challenge ourselves against. So when you go into a game against a powerhouse like that, you just want to keep playing with them, playing with them, playing with them for that one chance. And just lucky enough that those two hits over the fence. They were two great softball moments. We always still talk about it."

This fierce rivalry between USA and Australia continues today. In their last two global encounters, both games ended in the eighth inning with one-run margins. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, USA defeated Australia 2-1 with a walk-off two-run single by Amanda Chidester. Their most recent matchup was in 2023 in Balbriggan, Ireland, during Group A of the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup, where USA won 1-0 on a walk-off single by Hannah Flippen.

Despite cultural, demographic, and economic differences, Wilkins-Penfold takes pride in Australia's elite status in the sport, competing head-to-head with the USA.

"I think our country is doing really well. We don't have a professional league, we don't have a college system. We don't have a minimally funded programme. So most of the players these days, they have full-time jobs and they pay a lot of money to play," Brooke explained. "So we feel as a country, we do quite well against other countries that have a very good structure underneath them, and we've always prided ourselves on that. The sport isn't as big, but we have been able to do quite well.

Life after the Olympics

Wilkins-Penforld made two appearances in the Atlanta 1996 Games, pitching five innings and allowing three runs on four hits, with four walks against four strikeouts. In Sydney 2000, Brooke tossed 12 innings in three games, striking out 22 while giving up only one hit and one run for a 0.58 ERA. In Athens 2004, she worked 2.1 innings with three hits, six runs and 13 walks. She struck out three. In total, Brooke pitched 19.1 innings in her Olympic career, with 29 strikeouts and a 3.63 ERA.

There have been a total of six combined no-hitters in Olympic history, with Wilkins-Penfold participating in three of them. In Sydney 2000, against Italy, she started the game and went two scoreless innings, striking out five of the seven batters she faced. Tanya Harding completed the no-hitter in a 7-0 win. Four days later, Brooke tossed three innings in relief of Melanie Roche against Cuba, giving up one run on two walks, while striking out six in her team's 8-1 win. In Athens 2004, the lefty got the first two outs of the no-hitter against Japan, with Harding going the rest of the game in a 4-2 win for Australia.

Only four players have won more Olympic medals than Wilkins-Penfold: Australia’s Natalie Ward, Tanya Harding and Melanie Roche; and USA's Laura Berg, all of them with four. 

When asked about her medals, Brooke mentioned that she hadn't taken them out in a while, but this year she started bringing them to schools to talk to kids—not just about softball, but also about the importance of getting out and being active.

 "We found at home, since Covid, people aren't as physically active anymore, so it was trying to boost them into, you never know what sport you're going to be good at, so go and try them all," she said. "And then they were interested in what I did. So with the Olympics just happening, I took the opportunity to get my medals out and I came to understand that not many people ever get to hold them and see them. So the kids were excited, the teachers were excited, and you don't understand that when you see the excitement on their faces because they never thought they'd see an Olympic medal ever. That was cool."

After 11 years of service to Softball Australia, Wilkins-Penfold now serves as a WBSC international technical commissioner with two World Cups of experience. "The sport is my passion. I played it because I love to play it. It gave me my life. I got to see the world. I went to college,” she explained. "It's given me everything I've got. So I didn't want to walk away after playing."

She noted that her role as technical commissioner is valuable because it allows her to collaborate with individuals from other countries, gain their perspectives on the game, and observe its evolution. "Softball is evolving, no doubt about it. It's becoming big hitting, faster plays. It's excelling every time. Every year we move on the game excels. It's more dynamic.”

"My last year watching the U-15 players in Tokyo (during the inaugural World Cup) was extraordinary. Watching these 14 year olds play at that level and have the ability they do on that field was remarkable. And I'm really excited to see where those names we saw last year in Tokyo, where they end up when we head into LA and into 32. It'd be exciting."