Early steps, big dreams: Women's Softball teams eye LA28 Olympic Games from Chengdu

Eight of the top 10 teams in the world are competing this week in Chengdu, going head-to-head in the most important international women's softball event of the year. However, a gold medal at The World Games is not the only goal of these teams. Their sights are also set three years from now, when softball features on the sports programme of the LA28 Olympic Games.

"We're a long way away, without question, but this will give me a good understanding of where we're at with these athletes," commented Patty Gasso, head coach of the only qualified team for LA28 so far, hosts USA. "I’m sure going forward some athletes will change out and new ones might come in, but I would not want to do this without this team. There’s a good mixture of newcomers and returners, and they’ve really embraced me and the style I’ve tried to integrate into them."

With the Olympic Games as their main goal for the next few years, all teams agree that they are still in the early stages of their preparation, and The World Games are serving as a key part of this process.

China arrived at The World Games as the lowest-ranked team in the lineup. However, for the Atlanta 1996 silver medallists, this is the beginning of their way back to the top of the world. "This competition is part of our long-term preparations, specifically for the 2028 Olympic Games. The main purpose of this part is to allow all of us to clearly understand the current level and stage we are at," said Tang Changdong, China's head coach. "We need to figure out what the gaps are between us and the world's top six teams, and whether we can identify our own strengths. By doing so, throughout the preparation cycle for the 2028 Olympic Games, we can gain a clear understanding of the actual status of our opponents around us."

Despite being the defending Olympic gold medallists and World Champions, Japan is also approaching the next few years the same way - trying to develop the next Olympic-winning team. "We’re still in the early phase. With three years to go, we’ll keep gaining experience and addressing our key issues step by step," explained head coach Reika Utsugi. "We’ll turn the lessons into action quickly, update training plans, refine tactics, and set clear development priorities."

"[The World Games 2025] is part of our long-term preparations, specifically for the 2028 Olympic Games. The main purpose of this part is to allow all of us to clearly understand the current level and stage we are at"

Tang Changdong, China head coach

For Australia, four-time Olympic medallists, the next 12 months will be critical for their development plan, as they want to expand their athlete pool to select the team. "We're just at the very start of our preparation process for LA28. We've got a plan to make sure that we expose as many of our pathway players to international competition in the next 12 months especially to let them see the standard that is required to be able to compete at the international level to grow our depth, our player depth so that we can have a good pool of players to select from moving forward for the World Cup Group Stage, the World Cup Finals and then the Olympics," said head coach Kerrie Porter, who was appointed to the position five months ago. 

Canada won their first-ever Olympic medal in Tokyo 2020 - a much-awaited bronze medal. Kaleigh Rafter, a two-time Olympian, was part of the team that made history for the red and white team. Now in the managerial position, she is already all-in to repeat the campaign in LA28. "We're in the quad now. We've got three years left to prepare for that, so we're probably two years out for a qualifier and for the World Cup. So I think we're on kind of our upward trajectory. We're trying to really pick up some venom here as we get into the final part of this four-year stage," she said. 

Saskia Kosterink is also an Olympian. She represented the Netherlands in Beijing 2008 and now, as the team's head coach, wants to return in LA28 after missing Tokyo 2020. "This is an important step for us. Obviously, we have European Championships after The World Games, which will help us qualify for the World Cup next year. And for us, that's an important structure for our yearly planning and making sure that the girls get the podium, that they need to get ready for the Olympic qualifier," she said. 

Puerto Rico has only one appearance in the Olympic Games - an eighth place in Atlanta 1996. Now No. 3 in the World Ranking, they are also starting a renovation plan with the next Olympics as the main goal. "We are really starting in these World Games with many new players. Many players who may have been in previous competitions, but they didn't play because we have some players who are more veteran, some players who already have a longer international career," said David Santos, Puerto Rico's head coach. "In these World Games, we are starting our process going to 2028. That's why I understand that, since there are many girls who are young and want to show that they want to be there for 2028, it may be something that helps us get to that next level." 

Chinese Taipei has played in three editions of the Olympic Games (Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008), always finishing in sixth place and they definitely want to get back onto the Olympic stage. "We are continuing to optimise our player roster, participating in tournaments around the world, and becoming familiar with the tactics and strategies of European and American teams," said head coach Han Hsin-Lin, an Olympian in Atlanta. "The World Games feature the top eight softball teams in the world. By competing here, we can become familiar with the strength of each team, which will help us be better prepared for future training and competition."

One of the most difficult things for all these teams, in the early stage of their preparation process, is to balance the win-now mentality at The World Games with the need to develop the next Olympic team. This has been a challenge for all of them.

"We're here now, so it's short term here, but you're always with the vision of what's going forward and trying to balance those two. It's delicate," said Canada's Rafter. "You're always trying to play that line of how do we get people experience with the future. Thankfully we have a really great group and they're making decisions hard for us and they're pushing us to kind of keep thinking about a lot of different things."

"We're here now, so it's short term here, but you're always with the vision of what's going forward and trying to balance those two. It's delicate."

Kaleigh Rafter, Canada head coach

For Chinese Taipei's Han Hsin-Lin, there's no conflict between winning and developing. They go hand by hand. "In the short term, it’s about results; in the long term, it’s about legacy. For important games, I will field the strongest lineup to win, but in regular matches, I'll also give younger players opportunities to gain experience," she explained. "Our training addresses both the immediate opponents and the foundational skills and mental strength. Winning games and developing players are not in conflict, they complement each other. This way, the team can compete at a high level year after year."

Japan's Utsugi has it clear in her mind: Development comes first. "We’ll go for wins now while building for the future. We won’t get carried away by results, steady progress first," she said.

"It's a bit of a balancing act, but we've reset the programme when I come on board in March and we've got some clear goals and ways that we want to be seen as the Aussie Spirit now moving forward," added Australia's Porter. "We've got some things that we've been working on to try in this competition to then make sure that we can utilise them moving forward and develop a legacy for the Aussie spirit as we are now to hopefully compete in LA28."

For China, every chance to compete is an opportunity to develop the players individually and the team as a whole. This is a key part of their ongoing process. "Since we don't get many opportunities to compete against top international teams, whether from Europe, the Americas, or Asia, China's short-term focus is on improving ourselves," said Tang Changdong. "We aim to narrow the gap as quickly as possible with countries that represent the world's advanced level in this sport."

Puerto Rico's Santos focused on the need of developing young players, and giving them a leading role in the next few years. "We are balancing it with players who already have international experience, but since they didn't have a leading role, they are going to start being the leaders of this new generation that has been rising. That's why we have tried to maintain the same level of play, the same quality of the team, the same competitive quality, but by giving these players experience," he said.

For the Netherlands' Kosterink, the key is the planning and going step by step and trusting in the process to finally get the things done at the end of the road. "It all starts at the beginning of the year where we discussed the team goals. Obviously our main goal is being at the Olympics, but it's all about backwards planning to today. So today we need to make a good practice in order to be ready for tomorrow's game. So we take it day by day and eventually if you do everything right, it will take us to our main goal," she explained.