Aussie Spirit become first foreign athletes in Tokyo

The Aussie Spirit, the Australian women’s softball team, will be the first Australian Olympic athletes to leave for the games when they fly out to Tokyo Monday, arriving on Tuesday. Upon their arrival they will also be the first foreign athletes to arrive for the games.

In preparation for their departure all players and staff have received their vaccinations and were tested for COVID-19 last Friday. The 23-woman squad and the 5-staff will be tested again directly after landing. The team will then be brought to their hotel in Ota city where they will bubble for their six week training camp.

During this camp the Spirit will only be allowed to leave their hotel to go straight to the ballpark for practice in order to ensure they never have any contact with anyone but those in their bubble.

This will require the squad and staff to quarantine in the one floor of their hotel which will house all bedrooms, meeting rooms, the dining room and gym.

Girl gang 👊

It’s all a bit real after seeing our own Tarni Stepto in the @Sportscraft & @VolleyAustralia kit today!

Still work to do, catch you soon Japan 🇯🇵✌️#TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/EUIdJIJ45F
— Softball Australia (@SoftballOz) May 18, 2021

While the duration of this quarantine will be nearly two months in duration, Softball CEO David Pryles has stated that the players were happy to make the sacrifice in order to attend training camp. This will be the first time the entirety of the Spirit squad will have trained together since February 2020.

The camp will conclude with the selection of the final 15-woman roster for the games themselves. That team will be the first to compete the games since it was removed as a sport after the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Aussie Spirit have long been an Olympic powerhouse, having previously medalled at all four Olympics where softball was included. Specifically they won bronze medals in 1996, 2000 and 2008, and silver in 2004. The only other nation to achieve four podiums is the United States of America.

The team will open the Olympic Softball tournament when they play its opening game against Japan on July 23.

Friendly reminder to @australia, we’re opening @Olympics competition in 100 days time 💁‍♀️ get behind your Aussie Spirit! #TokyoTogether @AUSOlympicTeam @7olympics @WBSC pic.twitter.com/peVztqBWEA
— Softball Australia (@SoftballOz) April 13, 2021