Back in 2008, Ueno and Japan stopped the United States from winning its fourth straight gold medal — which would have been all of them since the sport’s Olympic introduction at the 1996 Atlanta Games. So with softball returning for the Tokyo Games, and some of the same cast of characters returning, too, there was little doubt that the two countries would meet yet again and face off a third time for Olympic gold. Once again for the United States, the team’s only loss of the Olympic tournament came in the game with the highest stakes. “The coolest thing about her is that she constantly reinvents herself and attacks hitters in different ways,” Abbott said after the game. “In some ways, she’s a softball god because things always go her way.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2021 22:52 UTC