Haylie McCleney | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile
Team USA softball outfielder Haylie McCleney shares what it meant to her and softball players around the world when it was announced that softball would be added to the Olympics for 2020.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
HALEY MCCLENEY: Hey guys, Haley McCleney, Team USA softball athlete. I'm an outfielder, two-time world champion, two-time pan-American gold medalist, and I've been on the team for the last seven years. And when we've got the news that softball had been voted back into the Olympic games, it was really just a-- like a dream-come-true scenario for a lot of us because after it was voted out after the 2008 games, I was in the eighth grade. And so a really big dream died for me because, you know, you want to get to the Olympics, you want to play on the biggest stage in sports all over the world. And for our sport to be taken out it was really heartbreaking I think for our entire community.
For us to get the games voted back and it took so much work on our association, on the Japanese Softball Association, and other associations around the world to get it back in. And when we got that news, I can't even express to you how much of a relief it was, how much of a dream it was coming back alive, how much you your hard work to get it back into the games was rewarded. And there were many tears shed when it happened, and then for us to be able to qualify the next year was amazing.
