Perfectly Imperfect: The 2000 Olympic Softball Tournament Ended In Gold, But For Team USA It Was Quite The Journey

Dot Richardson in action during the Womens Softball match against China at the Olympic Games Sydney 2000 on Sept. 25, 2000 in Sydney, Australia.

Team USA beat China 3-0, and then Australia 1-0. That left only Japan for the gold medal. The Americans knew that every out, every bunt, every walk, every play was going to be important.

Japan took a 1-0 lead before the U.S. tied it, and the game went to extra innings, again. Berg remembers being angry at herself over Japan’s run, a home run off Fernandez, because she thought if she got to the fence maybe she could have caught it. Then in the bottom of the eighth, Berg was up with a runner on second and one out.

It was raining, she remembered, and Japan’s coach came out to talk to the pitcher. 

“It’s weird, it’s one of the calmest at-bats I ever had,” she said. “I look at it now and I’m more nervous now than I was in the batter’s box.”

Berg hit a fly ball toward the left fielder, and as the ball spun it shifted direction just enough to force a stumble. The outfielder dropped the ball as she fell backward and Jennifer McFalls scored.

“That left fielder that dropped the ball, she’d been making these amazing plays in front of her and just robbing us,” O’Brien-Amico said. “Absolutely you think she’s going to make that play no problem, and I think all of us were shocked when the ball dropped. Then it was a race for Jennifer to get across the plate. Everyone’s heart was pounding. I’ll never forget the celebration in the dugout. It was the best feeling.”

Smith said that with the game in extra innings there was that initial thought of, “Is that it? Did we just win?”

“It was just a massive relief after four days earlier meeting to figure out how we were going to survive,” she said.

After it was over, O’Brien-Amico remembers the tiny but vocal American crowd supporting them — consisting mostly of team members’ family and friends — and how she ran out with the flag to thank them. She also remembers several of the Japanese players walking over and congratulating them.

“I kept thinking I don’t know if I would do the same thing, but it really meant a lot,” she said. “I thought that was very humble and kind of them. I never forgot that.”

Smith remembers it pouring down rain, and everyone getting drenched in the post-game celebration.

“I was like, ‘This is fitting,” Smith said. “When you look back it’s so funny. So many people think it’s going to be so perfect and then you feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, we survived that.’ There was nothing perfect about it, except when you look at that medal. It was perfectly imperfect, which is what made it so special.”