Great Britain softballer Alana Snow is eager to move on from the heartbreak of narrowly missing out on the 2020 Olympics as her side prepare to kick-start a redemptive new era and take on the world.
Snow was part of the GB squad that in 2019 were one win away from qualifying for the Tokyo Games but fell to Italy at the last hurdle, and she has now reunited with her team-mates in Dublin for the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup.
While their campaign may not receive as much attention as the Lionesses, whose FIFA World Cup bid also begins this month, Snow is sure her team has similar potential to inspire girls to dream of representing their country in a fast-growing sport – just like she once did.
“I can speak of my own experience growing up in Surrey,” Snow told the PA news agency. “My aspirations, my goals and who I saw was always the national team.
“Though I went to the States and played at university, the goal was always playing for my country. Like the Lionesses, they’re such symbols and hopefully being a symbol for girls in softball and maybe us being that next step is so, so important.
“My motivator was not professional, my motivator was not college. My motivator was how can I represent my country the best I can, and I think that if we have a chance then this team can really do that for girls here and I would love to be a part of that.”
Last month, Snow participated alongside Major League Baseball greats in a Trafalgar Square home run derby during MLB’s London Series weekend, a valuable opportunity to alert the general British public to the fact of her team’s very existence.
Unlike football’s World Cups, the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s 18-team showpiece is a multi-stage process, beginning with the first round of matches on Tuesday in Fingal-Dublin, one of three group stage hosts alongside locations in Spain and Italy.
World number 16 Great Britain will take on ninth-ranked Australia in the Group A and tournament opener, with two teams from each of the three six-nation groups advancing to next July’s finals in Italy.
In February, UK Sport funnelled an extra £90,000 of funding into Great Britain’s baseball and fastpitch softball national teams, a boost of both confidence and resource designed to increase the teams’ chances of Olympic qualification – though first the sports themselves will need to clear a major hurdle.
Athletes are eagerly awaiting the International Olympic Committee’s October session in Mumbai, where the programme for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics is expected to be finalised.
Baseball and softball featured at the Tokyo 2020 Games but will not be part of next summer’s Paris Olympics, with the sport’s leaders hopeful that a United States-hosted Games will catalyse their respective returns and beat out fierce interest from competition including lacrosse, cricket and flag football.
“It’s a must,” said Snow of the decision’s impact on the GB programme. “It’s so inspiring for us to be a part of. Our goal right now, all we’re talking about long-term wise is the 2028 Olympics.
“How optimistic am I? I’m in my head counting it as a guarantee. Like, America obviously loves baseball and softball. It’s the American pastime. I have no doubt that it’s going to be passed.
“Like, 100 per cent. And I think we are building, and this result this summer in Ireland is so important for us, for the building blocks of what’s to come next.”
