Danielle Lawrie, Team Canada Softball player chose to come back to the sport she loves 1,398 days ago.
She is the mother of two little girls, and she decided to come back to the sport one more time. She was watching the World Cup of Softball, she was watching a play-by-play by commentator Tiffany Green asked analyst Michele Smith a question about when she felt she was at her best as an athlete, and she said around the age of 34-35. That is when a light bulb moment happened for Danielle.
She was 30 years old, and she had represented her country many times when she hung up her cleats in 2014. Her oldest was 6 months old at the time-traveling alongside her. She had felt that then she had felt like she had accomplished everything. But when she the comment that Michele Smith’s made about her age, she felt like she can decide to go back to the sport. It took some time to convince her husband, but he knew how much the sport meant to her and he knew how much it would be an incredible moment it would potentially be to finish at an Olympic Games as a mother of two.
The moment she made her choice she reached out to Team Canada coach Mark Smith and they arranged a meet-up at the Canada Cup. They laid everything on the table, and she was ready to hit the tryout camp in January 2018.
She says’ If you told me how challenging this journey would be, I wouldn’t have believed you. It has been the hardest thing I have done as an athlete, a mother, a wife, and a teammate. I suffered anxiety like never before. I had to seek out a sports psychologist”
Then vs now … Freshly 21 at the 2008 Olympics & now 34 with a whole bunch of life experience in between 🥎🇨🇦 @TeamCanada @SoftballCanada pic.twitter.com/4R70NR6dj2
— Danielle Lawrie-Locke (@daniellelawrie5) May 7, 2021
Being back in the game as a mother of two and having an additional year of training because of Covid-19 has changed her life for the better. Her love and respect have evolved. She has always been a hard worker but being able to be part of one of the best teams requires a selfless work ethic.
She says as a momma, you just don’t have as much time as everyone else to get stuff done, because your kids need your time too.”